A Second Chance At Life
by Don't Mean A Thing
Summary: The greatest mage of a millennium, Harry Potter, returns to Second Year with quite the extensive amount of knowledge and power.
1. Prologue

_This story was abandoned and I'm trying to pick it up._

A figure wearing a hooded cloak entered the Ministry for Magic and walked right past the reception/security. The figure seemed to blend into the shadows and glide his way past like a Dementor. There wasn't any sudden movement, and there wasn't any sound of footsteps; he wasn't invisible, but yet he was. The unique brand of notice-me-not runes invented by the man-under-the-hood himself was etched onto the black cloak and was working perfectly. The runes allowed others to see him but turned their attention away instantly unless he wished for them to notice him. Most would forget they ever saw him; only those of strong will would remember his presence. Even then, all they could remember were two bright emerald green-colored eyes that seemed to radiate power.

The cloaked figure approached a veil in the Department of Mysteries; the veil was none other than the Veil of Death. For any ordinary man, they would feel disconcerted from just standing near the Veil. The blowing motion of the Veil felt like Death himself was calling for you. But for the man-under-the-hood, who had brushed with Death so many times, he wasn't even slightly concerned.

The man stopped his approach just two meters away from the Veil and lowered his hood. He then took out a stick. As he carefully inspected the Elder Wand, he muttered, "It's time for you to return to your rightful owner."

The figure took a step towards the Veil, with clear intent to chuck the stick into it; that was when the Veil suddenly stopped moving, another cloaked figure walked out of the Veil, and stopped just a meter in front of the figure holding the Deathstick.

The battle-hardened man almost reacted to the sudden appearance of another cloaked figure, but he instantly recognized the figure in front of him.

"Death, I presume?" he asked politely.

"You have a sharp mind, young master. But of course, you presumed correctly."

"Don't let my youthful look deceive you, for I have lived for more than four hundred years now, but since you addressed me as 'master', I am guessing you know perfectly well why I still have the body of a thirty-year-old young man."

Death smirked under his cloak, "And I stand by my earlier statement, young master."

"Despite how you are referring to me as master, coupled with what the legend says, I never believed anyone could ever truly master Death, could they? I merely gained immortality from uniting the three gifts from you."

"You are of course, correct, young master, but not completely. The Wand, the Stone and the Cloak, they were always meant to be passed down the Peverell bloodline. Any other who united them, but not the rightful owner of the Hallows, would merely gain full use of the three Hallows but would age and die nonetheless. As you have learned from the Goblins, by stripping Riddle of his body, your mother reunited the three separate Peverell lines in you. When the Elder Wand flew into your hand a hundred years ago, you became the first to truly possess all three Hallows; thus, all three gifts were forever bonded to you and, in the process, granted you your immortality." Death explained.

The cloaked figure paused for a fraction of a moment to consider Death's words, then proceeded to hold out the Elder Wand in both hands, and bowed respectfully. "Thank you for your explanation. Be that as it may, this wand has spilled enough blood throughout its history. Despite bonding to me, people would still seek its power, and more blood would be spilled. It's time for all that to stop; it's time for it to return to its rightful owner."

Death gracefully accepted the Wand and stowed it away. "Thank you, young master; there has been no other more worthy than you to possess my gifts. Despite the fact that no one could ever truly master me, only you since Antioch Peverell has ever truly wielded the power of the Elder Wand. But, I am sensing this isn't the only reason you have come before my Veil, is it? Young master?"

"No, it's not. I missed my chance, or should I say chances; there is nothing here for me to live for, not for a long time," the man-under-the-hood answered solemnly.

"No, I suppose not," Death paused for some time pondering, before informing the war hero. "This isn't supposed to be your fate; just like Riddle cheated Death, the manipulative fool, Dumbledore, meddled with Fate," Death spat with anger.

The cloaked man didn't say anything; he knew perfectly well who Death was referring to as 'manipulative fool'; Albus too-many-bloody-names Dumbledore had a lot to answer for. The cloaked man hoped there would be something of the old goat left for him to vent his rage, but he doubted there would be anything left with his parents waiting on the other side.

Flashback

Five years after Voldemort was gone for good, war broke out in Magical Britain again. Another dark lord wannabe decided to have a go at conquering Magical Britain, before moving on to the rest of the world. With most of Voldemort's Death Eaters bribing their way out of prison during 1998, it wasn't hard for the new dark lord wannabe to gather enough followers and start a new war. The Third Wizarding War had raged on for two years when, in 2005, Auror Lieutenant Harry Potter, who had broken Mad-Eye Moody's record for number of Dark Wizards killed or captured, was recruited by the Director of the Department of Mysteries, code name "Croaker", to join the ranks of a recently formed Unspeakable Battle Unit.

The Unspeakable Battle Unit was formed right after Voldemort's demise when Croaker became the Head of the department and saw the need for it. Aurors had too much red tape to be effective during wartime, and the Department of Mysteries operated without that said red tape. Nobody outside the Unit knew of its existence, other than Croaker; nobody in the Unit even knew who the other members of the Unit were, except for their codenames, and it would stay that way forever.

After the outing of Augustus Rookwood, Croaker also saw the need to clean house and made sure all new recruits were properly screened. The screening included a magical oath of loyalty to the Crown and the Department and a mandatory full medical check-up.

There was no word to describe how Harry felt when the Healers discovered what was done to him. He was dosed up with love potions keyed to Ginevra Molly Weasley, as well as loyalty potions keyed to Ronald Billius Weasley and Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

His magical core had nineteen layers of bindings, and only one belonged to his parents; the other eighteen layers were all placed by Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore had placed a layer just before he was delivered to the Dursleys, another layer during each of the subsequent years just before each of his birthdays, and an additional layer each during his fourth year and fifth year at Hogwarts.

Each layer would bind Harry's core by 50% of whatever was available, and Harry was then obliviated of the memory of being bound. This left him with 0.0002% of his magical core to work with. The Healers found out that even his mental capability was stunted magically by Dumbledore.

It didn't take much for the Healers to figure out who was under their care. Luckily, they were under secrecy oaths to never speak of this again.

Harry had enquired of Croaker how he was able to use magic at all. The only explanation Croaker could come up with was that Harry's magical core was much more adaptable compared to other wizards or witches to the situation needed. He had needed his magic to stay alive from the Dursleys' abuse and whatever challenges he'd had to face during his Hogwarts years, so his whole magical core had grown such that whatever available was enough to keep him alive. Obviously, the manipulative old goat thought he knew it all; in trying to keep Harry weak, he had made Harry stronger than what Merlin had been by many times.

Flashback Ends

That was one of the many manipulative old bastard's machinations discovered by him over the years. The cloaked man came out of his thoughts, and said to Death, "There isn't much I could do about that, is there? I used my time turner extensively, and spent three hundred years in the past; oh, believe me, I was tempted to change the past, but never once did I dare to interfere with what I already knew had happened." The man then smirked in a way that made Death himself shiver in fear. "I guess I'll have to give him hell in the afterlife, then."

The resolute man made to move towards Death's Veil; however, Death raised his hand and gestured him to stop. The cloaked man looked at Death inquiringly and wondered what Death had in mind.

"What if you could change the past, would you go back?" Death asked.

If the cloaked man was surprised by Death's question, he didn't show it. He pondered for quite a while. Despite being warned repeatedly that he couldn't change the past whenever he time-traveled back using time turners, he knew Death's offer was completely different in nature; it was very possible the deity in front of him had the ability to back up what he was offering. The question was would he want to? He had left Magical Britain with a much brighter future using his influence; now he just wanted to reunite with his loves and the parents he had never gotten to know.

"I am going to respectfully decline your offer; I have waited enough time to meet my parents again."

Death understood the young master, but he had to convince the young master to change the past; the Creator himself had tasked Death this mission. "You should know, your parents didn't truly die until the night of the 24th of June, 1995." As Death predicted, that got the young master's attention.

This time, the cloaked man was surprised, but given how much had he delved into Mind Arts, he wasn't shocked for long. "The night of Voldemort's return. How?"

"Your mother used one of the Ancient Rituals from the Therion Family Grimoire; the ritual anchors the souls of a family of parents and children on the same plane through bonds of familial love. However, the ritual was designed to be used temporarily for the duration of a war, not to grant immortality. Thus, it does not tolerate another ritual of similar nature corroding the familial bonds." Death explained.

Pieces of the puzzle immediately fell into place in the cloaked man's mind. "My blood, Voldemort's use of my blood to gain a body, inadvertently made him my anchor, and destroyed the bonds keeping my family alive."

"Correct," Death replied.

"I remember now, it has been a long time since I have read the Therion Family Grimoire. As long as one of the parents or the children survives, the soul of the victim or victims is anchored to the surviving member or members of the family. The victim or victims can be revived by simple physical contact between the victim and the surviving member, but only if their original physical body is recovered and repaired to be able to sustain life."

It was at this point Death interrupted. "Your parents' bodies were transported to your family manor in Wales by a switching rune the moment they were hit by the killing curse; your family elves put them under stasis until that night when Voldemort returned. Only then did your family elves bury your parents in your family grave site. The bodies buried in Godric's Hollow were transfigured pigs to fool Voldemort; I guess they managed to fool the rest of the world as well. If that old goat hadn't interfered, your godfather would have taken you to raise you in your family manor, and you would have grown up with them."

The cloaked man nodded in understanding.

Death continued, "If you choose to go back, you could save your parents, your godfather, Hermione Granger, Susan Bones and everyone else you cared about. You would get to see all of them again."

The man immediately countered, "I would see them again too if I die now! Why should I go back to deal with it all again?"

"Because, you didn't just anchor two souls that Halloween, you anchored four." Death saw this got the man's attention; he knew this would be the Holy Grail in convincing the young master to go back. He could tell the young man had figured out what he meant. "Yes, your mother was pregnant with your twin sisters at the time; if you choose to die now, you would not get to meet them in the afterlife, as they never lived."

Death knew he had succeeded, but he wanted to drive the nails in. "Plus, do you not wish to spare the memories of all the suffering from all those you loved? Yes, loved, despite how much you have told yourself otherwise. Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass, Astoria Greengrass, Padma Patil, Susan Bones, Luna Lovegood and finally, Hermione Granger. Not to mention your godson…"

"Enough!" The cloaked man snarled, his emerald eyes glowing, his cloak blowing. Death stopped talking immediately; despite being a deity, Death was intimidated by an angered Harry Potter, who may not have been a deity, but had the power and the skill to defeat most, if not all Demons. The cloaked man calmed down a bit, "Before I accept, may I ask why you want me to go back so much? Surely it means there would be fewer souls for you."

Death knew how much this man hated half-truths, so he answered honestly. "The Creator himself wasn't happy with how things turned out, but he couldn't intervene directly. So he sent me to convince you to go back, as you are the linchpin to everything. You have done good work dragging the Magical World to what it is now, but you could have done so much more with the help of your parents and those seven witches. As for fewer souls for me, you are wrong. The absence of dark lords encourages birth rates; I am not one against more happy lives, as, in the end, they all come to meet their maker." Death paused, then added with a growl, "Plus, only I get to decide when someone dies, not some wannabe dark lords."

The man nodded in understanding. "So when are you sending me to?"

"Far enough to save the first life you could, and worth saving. I am sure you will figure it out."

"Anything else you want to tell me?"

Death answered. "Yes, four things for you to know and some advice. One, reunite the Hallows as soon as you can, and I promise not to take those you love away from you, but you will still need to protect them or teach them to protect themselves from others. Two, Dumbledore may be delusional enough to consider himself light and not stupid enough to create a Horcrux, but he did force a connection between himself and Fawkes and used Fawkes to anchor himself to limbo without passing on. If I hadn't discovered what he was up to and interfered in time, the old goat would have convinced you to pass on to his so-called 'next great adventure', and taken possession of your undead body. So, free Fawkes from his clutches; you can use your Royal Phoenix form to force a burning day on Fawkes, which will destroy all foreign magic on him. Three, the Creator has a boon for you, your old friend Hedwig is given the potential to become a White Phoenix; again, use your Royal Phoenix form to jump-start a burning day to complete the transformation. Four, your knowledge of the future can be only shared with the people you trust and can protect your secrets; obliviate anyone else who manages to find out.

"Now, my advice, the Creator wants you to make your world a better place, but we are not going to control your life, so you should make your own decisions on how to achieve this. But, don't let it consume you; you have more than enough power and knowledge to deal with any dark wizards or witches, so use this second chance to live the life you wanted, and not worry about preserving the advantage of knowing what was about to happen. Also, you know there are adults like Amelia Bones and Croaker you can trust, so don't be afraid to ask for help. Most people in that bird club had been heavily manipulated by the old goat; slowly chip away his support from them, by showing his true nature. Lastly, don't be afraid to love and ask for advice from those smart witches you surround yourself with."

The cloaked man considered Death's words carefully and nodded in acceptance. "Thank you, Death, I will not let you or the Creator down. Now, how should we do this?"

Death actually smiled and pointed towards the Veil. "Just step through the Veil, it will lead you to when you need to be."

The cloaked man nodded, and stepped through the Veil; before he was completely through, he heard Death telling him, "Oh, don't be surprised if one of us decides to visit you."


	2. Return

Death's last words to him echoed in his mind; he decided not to make much of it. Harry found himself in a black void. Time seemed to be irrelevant here; it could be a millisecond, or it could be an eternity before he could see again. He found himself to be incorporeal, as a soul without a body, standing next to a four-poster bed.

He immediately recognized the room to be a Gryffindor's dormitory; judging by a book lying on the floor, Harry concluded it was the dormitory for second-year boys. And from Neville's and the traitor Weasley's snoring, Harry concluded it was well after curfew. Harry could tell his younger self-was in the bed right in front of him, behind the curtain. As he was incorporeal, he walked right past the curtain and saw his younger self. He looked so young and so fragile. He seemed to be troubled even when asleep, and it was time for him to put a stop to that.

The moment the incorporeal Harry Potter contacted his younger self, his older soul was sucked into the younger body.

Centuries of hunting dark wizards led Harry to become very cautious of his surroundings; the first thing he did after returning to his twelve-year-old body was familiarising himself with where he was and checking what was around him and if there were any threats. Harry kept his eyes closed and sent out a pulse of his magic. His magical pulse acted like a sonar and was reflected back to inform him of his surroundings. The sonar didn't work as well as it used to; despite retaining the vast amount of knowledge he gathered during his four centuries of past life, Harry seemed to need to train his younger body to relearn how to command magic like he used to. Nevertheless, he got enough information to confirm that he was lying in his bed in the Gryffindor's second-year boys' dormitory, and six magical people were sleeping in the room, including himself and the rat form of Peter Pettigrew.

Harry started to check himself over; his eyes remained closed. First, Harry checked his Occlumency; damn, alarms were going off all over the place. All that was left of his Mind World was the shell of his memory palace and a mostly destroyed control center. All his defenses and contingencies were gone; he would have to rebuild all that again.

Harry then found a series of complex charms used to stunt his mental capacity; normally, he would have to see a Healer about it, but with his advanced Mind Magic capabilities, even with a mostly destroyed Mind World, the blocks were already dissolving slowly. Harry decided to deal with the charms later if they were still not fully dissolved; first, he needed to check the rest of himself. For now, Harry disillusioned his memory palace, threw a massive invisibility cloak over his mind and added a beater bat for active defense.

Harry dived in further to find his magical core, or should he say cores. He found both his younger self's very powerful but bound core and his older, even more, powerful unbound core. Unlike in physics, where opposites attract, in magic, it was the other way round. Given the two cores were essentially the same core from different time periods, they were in the process of fusing as one. It really didn't make much difference to Harry's older more powerful core, for it was about a hundred times more powerful than his younger core without the bindings.

Once the two magical cores were fused together, Harry found the bindings that used to surround the younger core, now surrounded the much more powerful fused core. Of the thirteen layers of bindings Harry found around his core, only one was placed by his parents; the rest were all placed by the manipulative old bastard. Clearly, he needed to fix that. This time, he would choose carefully how to make use of all that magical backlash; Lady Hogwarts could definitely make good use of some.

Harry carried on checking his magical core; all the different colors represented the seven elements he now could manipulate. An area of grey patch represented his parselmagic, and the bright white remainder showed off his untainted core.

Harry then found the branches leading off from his magical core, draining power from it. With just over 0.012% of his magical core available, a third was draining to keep his parents and unborn sisters alive in stasis, a quarter was draining to power the wards in 4 Privet Drive, as well as all the monitoring charms on him, and a quarter was draining to sustain the Horcrux in his scar. This left him with only 0.002% of his magical core to use; even then he was still above the average British wizarding population without the boost from his older magical core. Harry was fully aware of how powerful he would become once he dissolved the bindings and shook off all these burdens. Hell, he lived with that much power for nearly four centuries. This was why he desperately needed to get his advanced Mind Magic capabilities back to what they used to be, so he could control his magic.

There were other branches indicating the oaths and contracts he was linked with, including those made by his godfather and godmother, but that was for another day.

However, Harry discovered something else literally made his blood boil. He found some branches indicating the use of blood magic. Upon further exploring, Harry found each of these branches was used to monitor a particular aspect of him: his location, his health, his magical core, his mental state and the Horcrux that was in his scar. It was then Harry made the connection to all the silver trinkets in Dumbledore's office; he would have to find a way to destroy these monitoring devices.

Harry then let himself become one with his magic and looked outwards to find his soul; he had learned how to do this during one of his travels in North America, where a Native American tribe leader taught him this to help him keep himself in check. As the saying went, 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Harry wanted to make sure he didn't become another Dumbledore. A bonus of this was, Harry could now find all of his animagus forms, as all their spirits lived in his soul, but that was a story for another day.

Harry first found his younger soul; he felt the characteristics of it: innocent, lonely, brave, pure and filled with hope. He then switched his attention to his older soul; again, he felt its loneliness, its bravery. But, its innocence was replaced by experience and cunning; its purity was largely retained, but tainted with a vengeful fire fuelled by his loss; and instead of being filled with hope, his older soul was immersed with loss and sorrow.

As the two souls merged to become a new soul, it recognized the second chance being given and took the best of both souls. Harry immersed himself in his new soul, its bravery, its cunning, its experience and its purity. The vengeful fire was replaced by a sense of righteous justice, the loneliness was replaced by the potential bonds of love, and lastly, there was the struggle between hope and sorrow; it seemed that his new hope needed some help to completely drive off the centuries of hurt and regret.

Like his magical core, Harry's soul also branched out. The souls of his parents and unborn siblings, frozen but peaceful, were connected to his soul by bonds of love. Harry knew it would be foolish to rush out to the family manor to revive his parents, and he was no longer a foolhardy Gryffindor. Harry wasn't sure when he would get the chance to revive his family, so he decided to ward his soul, especially the part anchoring his family to this plane of existence and set up an alert ward to warn him about anything that could threaten his family's survival. Harry then moved on to examine the rest of his soul.

To Harry's total surprise, there were seven shoots of new growth, all made out of love, each with its own uniqueness, waiting to be nurtured to become full bonds. This was something Harry was incapable of before his return; there was just too much hurt for his old soul to tether to anything new by love. Recognizing his second chance to live his life to the fullest, Harry made a decision then, to explore and nurture all these seven potential bonds. He already knew who each of these bonds would be connected to.

Harry then looked for the connection for the soul fragment of Tom Marvolo Riddle; he was worried about the possibility of corrupting and destroying the anchors keeping his family alive. Eventually, after thoroughly checking his soul, he concluded the fragment was not connected to his soul at all, at least for now.

Harry was delighted though, to find two new animal spirits, roaming around in his new soul. He would explore his new forms later; re-mastering his Royal Phoenix form was one of his first priorities.

Finally finished with his soul-searching, Harry decided to bite the bullet and discover how pathetic his physical body was. Harry mentally grimaced. Merlin, his twelve-year-old body was really a pitiful thing. There were improperly healed bones everywhere with barely any muscle attached to said bones, and scars all over his skin, especially on his back. Harry could tell that whatever was left available of his magical core was working overtime to keep him alive, and he was already starting feeling better with the boost to his magical core, but there was simply not enough nutrient at the moment to do any significant repairing. He would have to fix that before he completely dissolved the bindings on his magic; his weak body would disintegrate otherwise.

Harry then focused on the scar on his forehead and studied it carefully. It seemed that he had underestimated how literal it was when it was said that his scar was a Horcrux. The soul fragment was literally wedged between the scar and his skull; it had tried and was still trying to reach out to connect his soul, but there was a magical protective barrier keeping it from corrupting his soul.

The only reason Harry and Voldemort were able to look into each other mind was the proximity between the Horcrux and Harry's eyes and brain. A master Legilimens could read people's surface thoughts via passive Legilimency without eye contact, and Voldemort was a master Legilimens. But, neither the Horcrux nor Harry from the previous timeline was master Legilimens, the passage of information was solely achieved through the Horcrux and the top of Harry's eyes.

Harry smiled with pride at his mother's ingenuity. He had recognized the protective barrier from a sacrificial ritual in the Therion Family Grimoire; the same barrier protected him from the killing curse. Using the combination of these two ancient rituals, and some simple switching runes, his mother had ensured the survival of her family, if only the old goat had not meddled.

Harry had wondered why his family left the protection behind the powerful wards of one of his family manors in the first place; he suspected meddling on Dumbledore's part again. Oh, how he would draw out the destruction of Albus too-many-bloody-names Dumbledore, and enjoy every single moment of it.

Harry had wanted to exploit the soul fragment in his scar, gain all Voldemort's knowledge from before Tommy's body was destroyed by his mother, and maybe to use it to spy on the primary soul, of which there wasn't much left. It definitely wasn't much too far off to literally call Tommy boy a soulless bastard. However, Harry didn't want to risk corrupting his mother's ritual and losing the chance to revive his family, so he dived back into his magical core, found the branch draining to sustain the Horcrux, and cut off the supply.

Harry then redirected the cut branch and dragged it to connect it to the magical protective barrier, massively strengthening it. Harry went back to check on the Horcrux; it was already weakened and had given up reaching out to his soul. Harry doubted it would survive for long, but it might be able to from all the magic given off by him and the ambient magic in the Castle. In addition, the Horcrux might draw magic from other anchors to survive. As long as the fragment would not threaten the survival of his family, Harry would leave it be; he might get some use of it later after he revived his family.

Lastly, Harry checked the magical channels in his body. They didn't look good; in fact, they looked terrible. No wonder his magical sonar didn't work as it used to; the magical channels in his younger body were barely open. However, Harry was hopeful he would be able to dilate these channels to the maximum by the time he finished retraining his magic.

Harry opened his eyes after coming out of his meditation. It looked like he had quite a lot to do; this summer was definitely going to be busy. No longer the foolhardy Gryffindor, Harry needed a plan. First, Harry determined the exact date he came back to, as it would be a major factor in his planning. It was Monday, the 10th of May 1993, 0245. Harry searched back through his memories and remembered it was two days after his Hermione's petrification.

"Hermione," Harry whispered out her name.

Hermione, at her name, all other thoughts left Harry, except, Hermione's still alive, my Hermione's alive, petrified, but alive. After nearly four centuries since he last saw her, Harry immediately got out of bed and prepared to see his Hermione in the Hospital Wing; not even the manipulative old bastard was going to stop him. Besides, Harry just remembered Dumbledore's removal from Hogwarts. Good, Harry thought, he would be able to do everything without the manipulative old bastard monitoring his every move; and he had nineteen days to plan before Ginny was taken to the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak, and his glasses; he had nearly forgotten about that, something else to fix. Harry left for the Hospital Wing in a hurry. He didn't want to test whether he could use one of the magical teleportation methods he'd learned or developed yet with his younger body, so he put a silencing charm on his shoes, and raced towards the Hospital Wing.

He immediately found Hermione's bed after sneaking in and set up some simple privacy and silencing wards around her bed.

Slowly, Harry looked up to meet Hermione's petrified, but still open eyes. Try as he might, Harry couldn't stop the tears from filling his eyes. With his Occlumency shields down, once a single tear dropped out, the floodgate swung open. Harry dropped to his knees next to Hermione's bed, held her stone-like hand, and sobbed his heart out as he relived the day he learned of Hermione's death in the future, a future he would make sure to never come past again.

Flashback

It was ten days after his medical check-up upon joining the ranks of Unspeakables. How Harry managed to master Occlumency and Legilimency to control his immensely powerful magic in such a short time was a story for another time; let's just say, it involved a time compression chamber and lots of magical backlashes.

The newly dubbed Unspeakable, codenamed "Peril", came out of the time compression chamber and was ready to put this new dark lord wannabe down, but he needed to check on his best friend first. After the revelation about the youngest Weasleys and potions, he was worried about Hermione being Ronald's fiancée. He hoped against hope that Ronald genuinely loved Hermione, and hadn't hurt her, but with his mind thinking so much clearer, he couldn't help but draw the worst conclusion.

Harry Apparated straight out of the Department, to just outside the Burrow. He put on a fake smile and knocked on the door. As soon as Ronald Weasley had opened the door, Harry had sensed something was wrong. Weasley had become nervous the moment he saw Harry, a much taller, and much bulkier version of Harry, without his glasses, his emerald green eyes radiating power.

Ronald had nearly wet himself, trying and failing miserably to put on a fake smile, but to Harry Potter, Weasley was broadcasting his panicking thoughts; the moment Harry picked up the words, 'Hermione' and 'killed', Harry immediately reacted.

His wand was in his hand in a flash. Harry disarmed Weasley before the weasel even blinked; he then 'went muggle' on Weasley, using his newly acquired kickboxing skills to break all of Ronald's limbs. Weasley had just managed to let out a scream before Harry grabbed his neck and squeezed.

Harry wanted to learn everything, and he didn't want to be disturbed, so he let his magic do the work, and Popped. Out of all places, Harry along with the broken Weasley appeared on an island in the middle of a lake, a lake infested with Inferi. Harry still vividly remembered when he came here years before with Dumbledore, retrieving what they assumed to be one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

Harry wasted no time; he immediately pinned the weasel down on the ground and dived into his mind. The more he learned, the angrier he got.

From Ronald's mind, Harry learned Ronald was never his friend; their first meeting was a set-up. Ronald was paid with his money to spy on him, keeping him from learning his heritage, keeping him isolated from the rest of the student population, as well as using his best friend's status to get away with whatever he wanted.

Ronald had knowingly fed him loyalty potion, mostly brewed by Molly, although some were given by Dumbledore. Ronald had tried desperately and failed to keep Hermione away from him, eventually resolving to feeding her love potions, jealousy potions as well as loyalty potions, and even then, Hermione seemed to be able to fight off most of the effects and remained loyal to Harry.

After Voldemort's demise, Ronald was pissed that Harry had survived. With Dumbledore gone, he was no longer getting paid, and he wouldn't dare go to Gringotts due to his involvement in the break-in. So he decided again to use his best friend's status and ride along using Harry's fame to get what he wanted. In his resentment of Harry's survival, Ronald kept feeding Hermione love potion with Molly's help.

Then there was Hermione's death. Their relationship had never been stable since the Second Wizarding War ended. Hermione caught him cheating multiple times, but kept coming back after breaking up due to effects of love potions; however, despite the love potions, Hermione never did let their relationship go beyond snogging, even after accepting his half-hearted proposal, which was one of the reasons why Ronald had kept cheating on her. Finally, thirteen days before, the weasel lost his patience, and tried to rape her; Hermione broke free from the potion's effects and fought back.

During the struggle, Hermione was thrown against a table and hit her head; she would have been healed if Weasley had immediately sent her directly to St Mungo's Hospital, but no, Ronald was busy gloating how he was finally going to have his way with her and to take away one thing Harry had wanted.

While Ronald was gloating, Hermione had slowly and discreetly got hold of her wand, and cast a castration hex on the weasel, before drawing her last breath, muttering, "I love you, Harry!"

Harry struggled to hold back his tears and kept on rummaging through Ronald's mind, to find out what happened to Hermione's body. He found the memory of Ronald, Ginevra, Percival, and Molly planning how to hide Hermione's body, and came up with the excuse of her disappearance due to the ongoing war. Halfway through their planning, Arthur walked in, and even he reluctantly agreed to not inform Harry of what really happened, not wanting to face his wrath.

When they decided what to do with Hermione's body, they started discussing how the plan of getting the Potter fortune needed to adapt to the situation. It was clear this was new to Arthur, but he couldn't back out now; Ginevra didn't care, as long as she would marry the Boy-Who-Lived/Man-Who-Won; however, Ronald, Percival, and Molly were in it from the beginning. Ronald and Percival only knew their parts in the plan from Dumbledore, whereas Molly knew the whole plan from Dumbledore, and had a few of her own. After they finished the new plan, Harry saw Ronald's memory of dumping Hermione's body in some river. Harry learned every detail around the river and came out of Weasley's mind.

To say Harry was furious was the understatement of the century. Weasley's eyes widened in fear as he now knew Harry had learned everything from his mind; he could literally see magic pouring out of his body, to the point it had become oppressive.

Harry no longer needed to hold back his tears, as there were none left; all that left was the fire of vengeance dancing behind two glowing emerald orbs.

Harry whispered in a voice so calm, it scared the weasel to soil himself. "You will suffer for all you did and more."

Harry then dived into the weasel's mind again, planted his memory of suffering under Voldemort's Cruciatus Curse, and trapped the weasel in that memory. Harry put in a safeguard to prevent the weasel from going insane before coming back out again.

Harry then conjured some metal chains with his wand to lock the weasel in place, so he could only reach the basin, but not the Inferi-infested lake. Without focusing on how, Harry waved his hand and parted the water in the lake, and lit all Inferi present on fire with the other hand, except for one. He then used his wand to put a timed activating charm on the single Inferius left, causing it to attack whatever was left on the island in a month's time. Only then did he allow the lake to refill, burying the single Inferius underneath the lake.

Harry turned to look at the screaming weasel and silenced him; he told the weasel in a chilling voice that would send shivers down Voldemort's spine, "Now you will know pain. You will scream until you are too thirsty to continue, then you will drink the potion in the basin brewed by Voldemort himself; it will force you to relive all your worst memories. You will do this for a month, and then the single Inferius I left under the lake will slowly and surely dismember you in the most painful way possible.

"See you in hell, weasel." With that, Harry disappeared.

Harry immediately Popped to the river in the weasel's memory. He put on a Bubble-Head Charm on himself and dived in. Harry swam for three miles downstream before finding Hermione's body; he then took her back to her parents. Together, they mourned for Hermione Jean Granger, Smartest Witch of her Age, beloved daughter, and faithful friend.

Kneeling in front of her headstone, Harry swore vengeance on all those who had wronged her and stole their chance of happiness. Before he stood up, Harry muttered, "I love you too, Hermione. I will make you proud before we meet again."

Flashback Ends

It took an hour for Harry to get his sobbing under control, knowing she could hear him from his future knowledge, he whispered to her.

"Hermione, I know you can hear me. Know that I will always love you, you don't have to hide behind books and authorities anymore, because you are mine to protect, forever. Also, thank you for figuring out about the basilisk; don't worry about me, I will not rush in without a plan. Trust me on this, love.

"Listen, something isn't right about Ronald, I want you to learn potion detection charms over the summer, and start to check all of your food and drinks in the coming year, especially those touched by any of the Weasleys.

"In the meantime, being aware but not able to do anything must be driving you crazy, so I want you to start learning Occlumency. I will start teaching you now. Occlumency is a branch of magic called Mind Arts, the opposite is called Legilimency. Occlumency protects your mind from being read by Legilimens, which is a person capable of performing Legilimency. Master Legilimens could read your mind without using a wand, and yes there are two professors I will not name for now that are master Legilimens, and I will now teach you how to protect yourself from them.

"There are many levels of Occlumency. The basic level will only alert you from being read by inexperienced Legilimens, but a master will still be able to read your mind without detection. At the next level, you will have a much stronger and thorough shield, and it would be much harder for anyone to read your mind without being detected, but a Legilimens could still brute-force through and pull out your memories. At an advanced level, you will be able to suppress your memories, emotions, thoughts on top of your shields, so that even if a Legilimens broke through your shield, they would still have trouble pulling out your memories. In addition, you will have more resistance to mind-altering curses, potions and charms, such as the Imperius Curse, love potions, and compulsion charms.

"And at Master's level, you will love this, Hermione. A Master Occlumens has a fully formed mindscape; the mindscape serves to organize your memories and thoughts, and you can then add shields, tripwires, traps and anything else you could think of to protect your memories. With a fully-formed mindscape, you will find yourself better at remembering details, to the point of having perfect recall. Imagine how many more books you will be able to read, Hermione. I know I said you don't have to hide behind your books, but I also know how much you value knowledge, and I would never want you to change a part of yourself. But please remember, not everything written in books is true.

"Now that the introduction is over, do you want to learn this? I don't need you to answer to know that you do. Knowing how your beautiful mind works, I'll bet it's already very much organized, most likely to a library-like mindscape. But regardless I will start at the beginning…"

Harry then spent 2 hours teaching Hermione how to meditate, even without breathing exercises, given her petrified state. He taught her how to find her mind, how to start building her mindscape and gave her examples of different people's mindscapes. He then let her know the benefits of having a memory palace built within her mindscape. Lastly, he taught her about the different kinds of defenses she could put in her mindscape, and how it's better to build her walls brick by brick instead just setting a huge slab of stone.

"Now I am sure that was quite a lot of information to process, and you have got a lot of work to do to build your mindscape, so I will leave you to it. Remember, it's worse to have an organized mind without adequate defenses, as it would be even easier for the Legilimens to pull the correct memory out. So I am going to set you your homework, I know how much you love doing homework, hehe. You should wake up in about twenty days; in these twenty days, I want you to organize your memories, thoughts, and emotions into your memory palace, and next, I want you to build a mindscape around your memory palace. I want you to build an impenetrable defense with passive shields, as well as active defense systems with dragons, cannons, et cetera. When you wake up, I will test you, Ok?

"If you have any naughty memories you want to protect, make sure your defense is impenetrable. Remember, it's your mindscape, therefore everything in it should and will follow your laws; you need to know every inch of your mindscape, only then you will be able to will everything to follow your laws. So be patient, and build your mindscape one bit at a time.

"Goodbye, for now, I will come back to talk to you later; remember, I will always need you and I will always be there for you. You are my best friend, and hopefully one day, something more."

After visiting Hermione, Harry felt much lighter; he had held that in for nearly four centuries. Despite how much his later lovers had tried, Harry could never talk about her, until today. He could feel hope in his soul again.

Taking down the wards, Harry snuck out of the Hospital Wing, and pondered his next step. Repairing his own Occlumency was definitely the top priority, especially since with Dumbledore's charm in place stunting his mind, he couldn't think properly. It was seven o'clock already, so the once-again-growing boy decided to take a trip to the kitchen to get some food, and find a secluded place outside the Castle to work on his Mind Magic for a couple of hours, before heading to potions. He was too paranoid right then to go to the Room of Requirement; it was one room he didn't want the manipulative old bastard know about.

Twenty minutes later, he was alone facing the lake, a tree blocking him from prying eyes from the Castle. To say Harry Potter was a master at Mind Arts was like saying Dumbledore knew magic; true, but grossly understating.

Flashback

Upon receiving the results of his medical check-up, Croaker immediately ordered the Healers to remove his mind blocks and administer the strongest flushing potion to remove any residual potions. Croaker then told him that he couldn't risk removing the bindings on his magical core, without having him master Occlumency first. With the ongoing war, there wasn't much time to teach him, and the time compression chamber in the department was still recharging.

Harry nodded, glad someone was upfront to him, and then an idea came to him. He asked Croaker if they could remove the bindings a layer at a time, and use the magical backlash to charge the time compression chamber.

Croaker was very agreeable, and told him they even had crystals that acted like magical batteries; they were usually placed close to the ley lines to collect magic for emergency use, but they had used up all of them. So Croaker took him to a sealed ritual room with twenty crystals in it; each could power the time compression chamber for a day.

After dissolving three layers of bindings, all twenty of the crystals were fully charged. They decided to go into the chamber for ten days; each real day outside was a year inside.

Given the state of war, Croaker brought five other new recruits of the Battle Unit to train and a Healer for Harry and the team in the time compression chamber. During those ten years, the Healer worked extensively on Harry, and at the same time, Harry and the team trained under a foreign Battle Mage who had been retired for decades before being called in as a trainer for the newly formed Unit. During his spare time, the Head of the Department of Mysteries taught Harry one-on-one on mastering Mind Arts.

Flashback Ends

Croaker had taught him all he knew about Mind Arts, which was as good as, if not better than Dumbledore's capability in Mind Magic, but that was only the start of Harry's journey of learning Mind Arts.

Over his decades to centuries of travelling, other than a small number of very well hidden magical communities, Harry had visited almost all other magical communities in every corner of the Earth. He had studied with all magical beings: humans from all culture backgrounds, Veelas, Goblins, House-Elves, Centaurs, Vampires, Merpeople, he even found the rumoured-to-be-extinct High-Elves, and that was not to mention the Great Dragons.

Harry didn't consider Werewolves as a separate group, as he thought of them as magical humans with a disease, a disease with a cure Harry had a major role in developing.

The studious wizard had learned all types of magic from each of these groups, but he had always focused more on Mind Magic and Battle Magic. Magic is magic; however, each species or culture had a different way of using magic, including their use of Mind Arts.

For instance, Goblins would always protect their client's privacy as well as protecting their ward schemes; thus they all had almost impenetrable defences, whereas House-Elves were more adapted at reading minds to anticipate their master's wishes. Veelas on the other hand, were much better at misdirection; you would never know if what you glimpsed from their minds was real or not.

For Harry, he had took the best from everything he had learned, mixed with what muggles had understood about the brain and computers, which by 2098, were quite advanced, and he built his Mind World from all these together.

As he dived into his Mind World, dropping into his control room, the time-traveller found himself to be in his older form again. He first checked on his Memory Palace, which took the shape of Ravenclaw's Castle. No living beings other than him had seen it in more than eight centuries.

Harry then Shifted to the location where he stored a backup of his Mind World, and unlocked the security vault using a Parseltongue password. Once inside he had to find the correct locker, unlocking it using a conjured key; he then took out a copy of the disk, locked up everything again, and Shifted back to the control room.

The disk contained the schematics of the latest version of his Mind World before he returned to the past. Using a biometric palm scanner to activate the master control, he loaded the disk, and using a 256-bit encryption key he had memorised, Harry started the decryption process. As there were three layers of encryption, it took two hours in his mind to finish the decryption process; however, due to his magical power, and years of practicing Mind Arts, in reality, only ten minutes had passed. It would only get faster when his magical core was unbound.

He then tasked the master control to rebuild his Mind World using the schematics on the disk, and to run diagnostics to find out what destroyed his Mind World during his rebirth. Lastly, Harry activated the heads-up display (HUD), so he would be able to watch the rebuilding process as well as access his Mind World when he came out of his meditation.

The rest of the processes were all automatic, but Harry knew time barely passed on the outside, as the newly rebuilt world clock displays just came online in his control room. Harry had the expression of a kid at Christmas, as his control room looked more and more like a control centre, and one by one, his Artificial Intelligence (AIs) came back online. Finally, the Control Centre had finished rebuilding, and all his AIs went through diagnostics and started working furiously to rebuild the rest of his Mind World.

Immediately, one of the AIs detected the stunt placed by the MOB, a term Harry started to refer the manipulative old bastard Dumbledore as; the stunt was disintegrated very quickly, and due to this, everything else happened even faster than before.

Starting from the entrance of his Mind World, the master Occlumens had a replica of Hogwarts Castle as well as its surrounding grounds, including the Forbidden Forest and Hogsmeade. This castle was designed to lure and trap enemies; it looked just like the welcoming Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to put intruders into a false sense of security, as well as letting the intruder assume the Castle was protecting his memories. Where in fact, all memories contained in Hogwarts Castle were either fake or very painful.

The intruder would always arrive at the Hogsmeade station; as soon as the intruder walked past an invisible ward line, all previously inactive and disillusioned defences would become visible and start attacking the intruder. The defences included many dangerous species of magical beasts, including basilisks. From above, there were also Apache attack helicopters. The intruder would be forced into the castle, if he managed to stay alive that long, and locked in. Harry would then be able to control the castle to direct wherever he wanted the intruder to go, experience whichever memory he wished the enemy to experience, and only Harry could personally escort the intruder out. Of course, Harry would be able to memory-charm the intruder before he left, or he could lock the intruder's memory so as to not be able to tell anyone else of the incident.

Harry would often exploit the intruder's state of panic, and sneak a Trojan horse into their minds, which would slowly compile information in the intruder's mind in small data packs, without being noticed. The data pack would then be placed on the surface thoughts of the intruder's mind as random numbers, allowing Harry to download information slowly even after the intruder was escorted out of his Mind World, just by scanning their surface thoughts. Once all information was downloaded, the Trojan horse would constantly build update packs for any new information.

Perhaps, what was even more ingenious or sinister, depending on how you looked at it, was the Trojan horse within the Trojan horse; the second Trojan horse serving to corrode one's mind, but dormant unless an activation phrase was whispered by Harry, and heard by the intruder. Of course, this Trojan horse would more likely be discovered by skilled Occlumens and thus destroyed, but the damage would have already been done. Harry was going to make one each specifically for Dumbledore and Snape, making sure they suffered as much as possible.

His false memories also served another purpose; with a full set of fake memories in Hogwarts Castle, Harry could overcome the most potent truth potion, by simply temporarily setting his mind to recognize the memories in Hogwarts Castle as real memories. The AIs would also be able to create detailed memories to put in Hogwarts on-the-go as he was being questioned.

His real memories, though, were all placed in the replica of Ravenclaw Castle; it also contained all the valuable knowledge he'd gathered during his four centuries of life in the other timeline. Ravenclaw Castle also served as his central command, and was placed on the far side of the moon, where no one would ever look. The castle itself was disillusioned, with an invisibility cloak covering it; it had many active defences: machine guns, grenade launchers, land mines, and twelve Hungarian Horntails patrolling around the structure. The moon itself had multiple disillusioned drones circling it, ready to attack anything getting close.

Although Harry himself could drop straight into the central command, for everyone else there was only one viable safe entrance, through a paired, upgraded version of the Vanishing Cabinets, redesigned by himself during the 2060s for the Department of Mysteries, commercially called Potter's Portals. The pair in his Mind World had top-of-the-line biometric security measures, top-of-the-line for 2098: voice recognition, again, a Parseltongue password; biometric palm scanner, keyed to his left hand; and retinal scanner, keyed to both of his eyes, with a blinking pattern in Morse code as the last security measure.

One portal was placed just outside the entrance hallway of the Ravenclaw Castle, with a team of eight AIs armed with assault rifles guarding it; its sister portal was placed in the deepest part of Hogwarts Castle, in Salazar Slytherin's library located in the Chamber of Secrets. Tommy-boy had never found the library, as he had been deemed unworthy of the knowledge in it. The Chamber had a King and a Queen Basilisk; both would only answer to Harry's command, instead of any Parseltongue.

Lastly, a copy of all the information stored in Ravenclaw Castle was placed in a replica of Potter Manor in Wales, which was placed in one of the thousands of stars in the sky. Only Harry knew which star it was on; however, he designed it so even he couldn't access that star. Once built, everything in Potter Manor would run remotely by a pair of AIs; one AI was to collect every piece of new data in Ravenclaw Castle, authenticate the data and copy it in its encrypted state to be placed behind layers of security in Potter Manor, while the other AI was designated with a single job to look for discrepancies in Ravenclaw Castle, by checking the data in it against those stored in Potter Manor; this would counter any form of memory charms. The defence system around Potter Manor was similar to that around Ravenclaw Castle, except the use of battle spaceships instead of drones.

A lot of Mind Arts is about will, and one's will could be strengthened by practicing Mind Magic; of course Harry Potter had one of the strongest wills naturally, being able to fight off an Imperius Curse on his first try when he was 14 showed that. However he had kept on strengthening it; he had security measures that would immediately alert him if someone was to try to control him in any way, Imperius Curse, Compulsion Charms, mind altering potions and repelling wards or notice-me-not Charms.

Harry now had the strength to fight all these off the moment he was made aware of any attempt, and he could decide the manner in which he fought off the attempts. It didn't really matter most of the times, but if someone was casting Compulsion Charms or Imperius Curses on him, they would be in a world of pain. If the master Occlumens chose to, the offender's will would be directed to a long, thin room. The room used an upgraded version of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, but instead of aircraft, the system would launch a block of metal, weighing two tonnes, accelerated for two miles, straight at the offender's mind. Whoever tried it would most likely spend months in St. Mungo's with the Mind Healers.

Harry Potter knew he had the best defended mind in history, but he wasn't arrogant enough to assume no one else would ever delve into Mind Arts as much as he did, so he prepared contingencies for when the opponent had better strategies, trying to sneak into his Mind World. Everything in his Mind World was constantly scanned for malicious objects; if something was found and couldn't be dealt with, a master reset could be used to destroy and rebuild his Mind World with all his memories intact.

Of course, defending his mind was only one of the many functions of his Mind World; he had built an ecosystem to allow all his animagus spirits to live in freedom. The multi-animagus also benefited from their roaming freely in their natural habitat, as he could learn how they moved; granted, Harry still needed to train in those forms in the physical world, but it was better than nothing.

The library in Ravenclaw Castle, as well as Potter Manor contained thousands of tomes. The well-travelled mage had used his perfect recall developed from his Mind Magic and read every single book he could get his hands on; he reasoned that he felt closer to Hermione that way. But he had not processed everything he read; there were many books Harry had simply copied to his mind by speed-reading through them. Therefore, he or his AIs could use the study room attached to the library to do research.

However, despite how much greater control Mind Arts had helped with his magic, as a security measure, Harry could not practice magic unknown in his Mind World, so he had to practice new spells and playing around with runes in the real world. However, the duelling room in his Mind World was a great place to develop spell chains, and duelling strategies nonetheless.

Harry watched as the last piece of his Mind World finally fell into place, and discovered he had twenty minutes to get to Potions. So, he came out of his meditation, and smiled as he saw his HUD up and running, reporting the diagnostic scans and displaying any information he had on everything he set his eyes on.


	3. Potions

Potions Classroom, Hogwarts Castle

10th May, 1993

To keep up with appearances, Harry ran back to Gryffindor Tower, showered and changed quickly, got his books and arrived for Potions class with a minute to spare. Harry was giddy with anticipation, hoping Snivellus would perform Legilimency on him.

Harry was still not sure where Snape's allegiance lay, so he was not sure what he would do to Snape yet. Oh well, he would find out soon, when he finished downloading every scrap of Snape's memories. Harry had an inkling that Snape only cared about Snape; in the meanwhile, he would suffer for intentionally driving the existing wedge between Slytherin and the rest of the school, weakening Magical Britain by being the worst Potions professor in history and allowing Slytherin girls to be raped in their common room when the Dark Lord had returned.

Once sat down, Harry had another problem; he had to use all his Occlumency training to not obliterate the red-headed weasel, as even his usually green-tinted HUD was flashing red. Quickly, he decided to send a Legilimency probe to direct the weasel to sit somewhere else far away from him, preferably next to the albino git.

The weasel did just that, drawing any lingering attention on Harry away from him. The anticipation of the upcoming stupidity posturing contest finally managed to calm the angry wizard down enough to allow him to plan what to do about the weasel. Ronald may not have killed Hermione yet, but he had hurt her, insulted her, not to mention knowingly set her up to die on his first year's Halloween; that satisfied Harry's new sense of justice, allowing him to plan the weasel's punishment.

Meanwhile, the rest of the class watched the weasel like he had grown two heads. Malfoy, the person who nearly started the Fourth Wizarding War in the future, if it were not for Astoria's warning, was seething and managed a sneer at Weasley. "What are you doing here, Weasel? Did Scarhead finally drop you like a piece of filth? I can't say I am surprised, but these seats are reserved for the elites, and you, weasel, are definitely not one of the elites."

Harry was quite impressed by the ferret for once; he actually managed to insult both of them. Weasley's face went as red as his hair, but more than anything, he was confused as to why he came to sit here in the first place, but he just knew he had to sit here.

Not knowing how to counter Malfoy's insults, Ronald took a swing at him. And that was when chaos broke out. Malfoy's two bookends immediately went to help their leader; Seamus and Dean, being the hormonal Gryffindor males they were, didn't need much more persuasion. Neville, seeing Harry didn't move to help Weasley, was surprised by Harry's lack of reaction, but stayed put.

Unfortunately for the Gryffindors, Theodore Nott joined the fight, not wanting to waste a chance to have a shot at the weasel badmouthing Slytherins at every turn; Blaise Zabini thought it might be fun and also joined the fight. Even Millicent Bulstrode was reveling in the opportunity to make some use of her bulkier build.

At the side, both Pansy and Lavender were cheering on their respective houses, while Parvati was watching everything with fascination so she could gossip to others. Most other girls just got as far away from the fight as possible, not wanting to get involved in the fight, especially in Snape's classroom.

Other than Neville and Harry, only Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass stayed put, not moving an inch. Tracey watched everything with unveiled interest, wondering how this would affect her and Daphne in the house of snakes; Daphne kept up her Ice Queen persona, but her icy blue eyes absorbed everything, especially the tiny smirk shining through Potter's emerald-green eyes.

It was this scene the dungeon bat had found in his classroom. He was very surprised Potter was not moving to help the red-headed weasel but masked his reaction. Five minutes later, with a few curses, Snape finally managed to break up the fight. Weasley was hurt the worst, while Malfoy wasn't much better off due to Weasley's size; both of them were sent to the Hospital Wing. The rest of the 'fighters' got away with a couple of bruises; Seamus and Dean both had muggle backgrounds and were fitter and quicker than the Slytherin pure-bloods, so weren't hurt much from being outnumbered.

Once the class had settled down, Snape, as always, jumped to the conclusion that everything was Potter's fault, and he would be right this time.

"POTTER!"

"Yes, Professor," replied Harry calmly.

Seeing Potter didn't react, only pissed Snape off more. "A hundred points for starting a fight!"

Potter just looked back at Snape in the eyes and said innocently. "But I was nowhere near the fight, Professor."

Snape was ecstatic inside when Potter looked him in the eye; he barely heard what Potter said, and immediately dived into the brat's mind. What he found was not what he expected, how did the brat develop a fully formed mindscape? Snape, in his infinite arrogance, decided the brat couldn't possibly build any adequate defenses to stop him. So he quickly got out of Hogsmeade train station and headed towards the castle, where he assumed all the brat's memories resided. He only realized his mistake when he crossed the invisible ward line; too little, too late.

Harry watched in fascination as Snape ran as fast as possible with a dozen Acromantulas chasing him; that was when his helicopters started to open fire. He made sure none of the bullets actually hit but landed close enough to make Snivellus wet himself, and in the real world, he did.

In that moment of panic, the master Occlumens planted his Trojan horse, obliviated him and roughly threw the intruder out of his Mind World. Harry didn't want to do too much to draw Dumbledore's attention yet, plus he needed Snape functional to brew the Restorative Draught to revive Hermione.

In the outside world, only seconds had passed; the class was startled when Snape fell back on the ground without warning. It was then someone noticed that the potions master had wet himself. Snape, seething with rage and embarrassment, yet, not sure what had happened, except that it was Potter's fault, immediately dismissed the class. The news of Snape wetting himself during Potions had spread throughout the castle before the end of lunch that day.

Now they were dismissed from Potions, Harry had two hours before lunch would start, he decided this would be a perfect time to head for the Room of Requirement. With his full Mind World up and running, Harry was more confident that he would be able to cover all his bases while getting there without being discovered.

Not long after walking out of Potions, Harry disappeared into an alcove, he took out his Invisibility Cloak. Harry knew MOB had put several charms on it to make it act more like a normal invisibility cloak, rather than Death's own Invisibility Cloak. Harry focused on his magic, it took a while compared to usual, but eventually, he activated his mage sight. Harry turned to his Cloak and saw the different colors as well as strings of Arithmantic formulas, indicating the multiple Charms on it, including a Tracking Charm as well as some modified Revealing Charms.

Having spent four decades training and working as a Curse-Breaker as well as Ward-Master with the Goblins in Egypt, Harry dispelled the Charms easily. Harry then proceeded to check the rest of the items on his person, he found several Locating Charms on his personal items: glasses, left shoe, belt, bag, and wand. Harry used his wand to get rid of all the Charms except for the one on his wand, which he again focused on his magic, remembering the principles of wandless-magic, pushing magic through his hand, and overcame the Charm on his wand.

Now all the Tracking Charms are gone, Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak – Death's own Cloak in its full glory, it blocked all senses from others, Harry no longer needed to cast additional Charms such as Silencing Charms, Odourless Charms, etc. No magic could detect Harry now as long as he had the Cloak on.

Harry again focused on his magic, remembered the intent and magic needed to Pop, when he felt he was ready, Harry willed himself to where he needed to be. Pop was what Harry named Elf Apparition, which was much more pleasant than normal Apparition, with the additional benefit of not being warded against in many places, including Hogwarts. Harry knew many other methods of teleportation, but he knew his body wasn't ready for those yet.

Moments later, Harry was walking back and forth in front of where the door of the Room of Requirement should be, asking to talk to Hogwarts. Once inside, Harry found an exhausted girl standing in front of him, her eyes looked sad, but determined despite the exhaustion. Harry was immediately by her side, enveloped her in a warm hug.

"Oh Cassie, what had he done to you?" Harry whispered tenderly.

The girl recognized who was holding her, the sadness in her eyes was immediately replaced by hope. "My Lord, you finally came."

"I did, Cassie, I did. Let's get rid of this 'My Lord' none sense, call me Harry. Treat me as your big brother, I don't think my twelve-year-old fragile self can handle you calling me 'Daddy' at the moment." Harry chuckled.

Flashback

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,

28th June 2025

Lord Harry James Potter-Black, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Black and Gaunt, Head of the Most Ancient Clan of Therion, Order of Merlin, First Class, Victoria Cross, Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Director (Retired) of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Warrior of Light, Boy-Who-Lived, Man-Who-Won, and many other bloody titles, had just added another title to the list, Professor of Defence. He was lucky enough to be able to hide his true magical power from the public, as well as all the things he did using his many aliases, Harry was sure he would otherwise have many other titles forced onto him, Grand Battle Mage would be one of many.

This was the first time he had come anywhere near the Castle since the Third Wizarding War had begun, it held too many memories of his Hermione, he wasn't ready to face the pain until now. It took him more than a hundred fifty years by his timeline to come back to see the beautiful Castle again.

Harry had kept his job with the Aurors after being recruited to the Department of Mysteries, using his time turner liberally to stay on top of both of his jobs, he eventually became the Head of the DMLE. He held that title for eight years, and revolutionized the department, before handing over the job to Susan Bones, whom, he trusted completely.

Headmistress McGonagall heard of his retirement and immediately cornered him to take the job of teaching Defence. Knowing Hogwarts would be the best place to influence the future generations, teaching them how to defend themselves while preventing another Dark Lord from rising, Harry didn't put up much of a protest.

The moment he stepped through the Hogwarts' ward line, he heard a weak feminine voice from the direction of the Castle.

"Help me! My Lord!"

Harry was startled by the voice, and immediately went into his battle stance, and sent out his magical sonar to find wherever that voice came from. The pulse swept across Hogwarts, instantly, he became aware of the locations, the states of magical core and health of every living being in the Castle. He didn't find anything out of place, as he continued receiving information from his magical sonar, he felt an emotion projected towards him, a sense of longing.

Harry tracked the source of the emotion to its origin, and what he sensed confused him further. It felt young yet ancient, it had strength yet there was weakness. Harry wasn't sure what to make of it, so he tentatively asked. "Who are you?"

Harry immediately felt it becoming excited. The same feminine voice was heard again, Harry then decided whatever it was, it was a she, and she sounded happy this time. "You heard me! My Lord! Finally, I will be free. I am the Castle itself, Lady Hogwarts, the Founders liked to call me Cassandra, but you can call me Cassie, My Lord!"

Hearing the explanation, Harry relaxed somewhat. "It's nice to meet you, Cassie, you can call me Harry. What did you mean by, finally you will be free?"

"Come to the Room of Requirement, ask to talk to Lady Hogwarts, it would make it easier for me to talk to you that way," Cassie told him excitedly.

Harry told her he would be there right after meeting the Headmistress.

Harry kept his promise, half an hour later, he entered the Room of Requirement. Once inside, Harry found a cute and beautiful girl about 17 years of age, with long raven hair, and green eyes with a different shade to his own, the girl looked happy but fragile for her age, reminding Harry of himself when he was in Hogwarts.

The girl saw him and immediately enveloped him in a hug.

"Cassie?" Harry made an educated guess.

"Yep, it's me, Harry. I am glad you finally heard me, I have been calling out for you ever since when you were eleven, I guess I was even weaker than I am now, so you couldn't hear me." The girl looked downcast.

For some reason, Harry had immediately become very protective of her, and couldn't stand her being sad, he returned the hug and tried to soothe her. "Sorry, Cassie, I didn't hear you then. It definitely wasn't your fault, Dumbledore had done a number of things to my core and my mental capacity, and I suspect that was why I couldn't hear you."

"That stupid old goat, he was the reason I was so weak. He had been lowering the standard of education in Hogwarts for years, there wasn't much I could do, with only two true heirs of the Founders being found, your father and your mother, they couldn't overturn the Board of Governors and Dumbledore's decisions."

"However, when I tried to keep that Death Eater Snape from teaching here, the old goat altered my ward, and cut off the magic supply from the ley lines, my magical core was only sustained by the ambient magic from the students. As if that wasn't enough, the bastard disabled lots of wards designed to protect the students, and redirected most of what magic was available to spy on the students' private matters, even their thoughts, but never to interfere. There was so much bullying I could have prevented, there was so many girls' innocence I could have saved, but without a single Founders' heir in school, all I could do was to send the ghosts, and have them to try to interfere as much as they could." By now Cassie was heavily sobbing.

Harry was trying to sooth the crying girl, but inside, he was seething. That manipulative old evil bastard obviously had a lot more to answer for than he had ever imagined. "Shh, Cassie, it wasn't your fault, it wasn't your fault. What about the other professors?"

"The bastard used memory charms, potions to control all of the professors other than Snape, but I wouldn't be surprised he used something more subtle there either."

Harry silently seethed, there wasn't much he could do to change the past, but at least he could help Cassie from now on. "Shh, Cassie. That is all in the past, I am here to help you, what can I do?"

"Headmistress Minnie altered what she could to strengthen the protective wards, getting rid of the spying ones, which is why I am feeling much better than thirty years ago. Nobody knew the old goat had cut off my access to the ley lines, I tried to communicate with Headmistress Minnie, although she could feel my wards, she couldn't understand me, nobody could since your parents left the Castle, that is until you came back." Cassie explained.

"Ok, how do I reconnect the ley lines to your core?" Harry asked, wanting to help the girl. Cassie just smiled brightly at him, and the room around him changed in front of his eyes.

Harry was now standing on a platform with Cassie, what he saw was remarkably familiar. Harry was looking literally at Castle's magical core, the capabilities of the Castle never ceased to amaze him.

Cassie explained, "The Room of Requirement was designed by Rowena Ravenclaw, in effect, it became the heart of the Castle. It was in this particular room, the Founders hooked up the ley lines running across underneath this Castle to my primary ward stone. In addition, all of the Founders pushed their own magic into that ward stone and added a copy of their essence into it. I am not sure it was intentional, but they managed to create a new soul which became a part of the Castle. The Castle's soul was fed with the magic of the ley lines, and the children, as well as all the wild emotions of all the emotional teenagers that had gone through this Castle, it wasn't long before the Castle became sentient, and I was born."

Harry was made speechless by Cassie's story, after more than a century of traveling around the world to learn different forms of magic, he thought he was done being surprised. Now he understood what he felt earlier. Cassie was ancient as she was born centuries ago, but also young because most of her emotions came from the students of Hogwarts. She had strength as Harry could tell her magical core was nearly as big as his, and the weakness he felt came from the magical core being exhausted.

Having dived into his own magical core many times, Harry understood everything in front of him. The size of Cassie's magical core was the biggest he had ever seen, other than his own. However, unlike his own magical core, which was thick and opaque, Cassie's was almost translucent, showing the symptoms of magical exhaustion.

Harry then saw the branches giving off from Cassie's magical core, feeding into different ward stones. Looking down the platform, Harry saw the multitude of ley lines running across, they all gave off a branch to converge into a focal point, which was then connected to Cassie's magical core.

However, the connection has some sort of binding around it, restricting any magic flowing through the connection, Harry had immediately recognized Dumbledore's magical signature on the binding.

Knowing precisely what to do, Harry used his holly and phoenix wand to dissolve the bindings. Harry could feel the difficulty in trying to overcome the spells cast by the Elder Wand, it was then, Harry decided to retrieve the Elder Wand from the manipulative old bastard's grave, and banish his body from the Castle's holy ground, then maybe he would spend a few decades studying wand-lore.

Once he overcame the binding, Harry then manipulated the ley lines, so three more similar connections were fed into Cassie's magical core. Harry added different protections around each of the four connections, preventing any future Headmasters from abusing the Castle.

He could tell her core was recharging steadily, and the physical body of Cassie standing next to him was looking stronger by the minute. However, given the size of Cassie's magical core, Harry could tell it would take years to get her magic core fully recharged. As unlike him, Cassie couldn't produce magic herself. So Harry decided to help her some more. Harry holstered his wand, as he knew it couldn't handle what he was about to do.

Harry raised both of his hands, pushed raw magic out from within himself, and fed it into Cassie's core, he needed to get rid of some of his excess magic that was contained by his Occlumency anyway. In the process, Harry had unknowingly pushed some of his caring and protectiveness into her soul as well.

Cassie had closed her eyes, reveling in the feeling of being connected to the ley lines again, and better than ever, she knew Harry had done something to increase the connection, and smiled at his thoughtfulness. That was when Cassie suddenly felt the raw magic being fed into her, much faster than the ley lines could, she felt the care and protectiveness Harry already developed for her, just like a father would. When Harry had fully recharged her core, becoming a little exhausted himself, Cassie couldn't help but to envelope him in a bear hug, and gushed, "Thank you, Daddy!"

From that day on, Cassie became strong enough the roam around the rest of the Castle, she was often seen playing with the Defence professor and had her 'Daddy' wrapped around her little fingers. Even with a mental link he shared with Cassie, Harry never did manage to find out why she called him 'Daddy', nor did he ever manage to get her to call him anything else.

Flashback Ends

The girl in front of him looked even younger and more fragile than the one Harry first met in 2025, and Harry knew he would have to help her. Despite what he said, he would always care for Cassie like a father would, with his new soul, he may even be capable of loving her as a daughter.

But, with his own magical core being bound, he knew he wouldn't be able to overcome Dumbledore's binding, and his body wasn't ready for his whole magical core yet, even with his Occlumency back online. But, that didn't mean he couldn't remove a couple layers of the bindings around his magical core, and the magical backlash from the removal would be more than enough to recharge her magical core and all the ward stones.

"Listen, Cassie, look me in the eyes." Cassie did as he requested. She was surprised by the emotions directed towards her, and for the first time in a long time, perhaps since the Founders' passing, she felt loved.

"I know about the binding around your connection to the ley lines placed by Dumbledore, but I am not strong enough yet to overcome the spells cast by him using full power, with the Elder Wand to boot. What I will do is to use a ritual to remove two layers of bindings around my magical core, and I want you to use the magical backlash to recharge your core and the ward stones. Does that sound like a plan?"

Cassie smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

"Now I am going to project to you the room I need, as well as the ritual circle needed to remove two layers of the bindings. I will charge and activate the runes myself, you just get ready for the magical backlash. Ok?"

Cassie smiled and nodded, the Room immediately changed around them as soon as she saw what Harry wanted. It was the same room the future Cassie had shown him, except with rune circles drawn on the platform.

The Ritual was actually quite painful for Harry, but once finished, he felt a lot better. When he opened his eyes again, he could see Cassie beaming at him brightly, looking much healthier, but retained her eleven-year-old girl look.

Seeing his eyes reopening, Cassie jumped straight into Harry's arms, and exclaimed in joy, "Daddy! You did it! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" If it wasn't for his Occlumency, Harry would have face-palmed, didn't he just tell her earlier to treat him as a big brother, clearly it didn't sink in. Harry didn't know if he wanted to sigh in exasperation or laugh with joy for getting his daughter back, she was all he had for years before he went to meet Death. However, this wasn't the right time to think about any of that, as the now much healthier, and stronger Cassie was hugging the life out of his much more fragile body.

"Cassie, can't breathe." Harry managed to squeak out.

Cassie immediately pulled back, and gave him an innocent childish look, "Sorry, Daddy."

Harry knew then, he was in trouble, again. If the innocent look of her seventeen-year-old self was able to get whatever she wanted from him, what chance he stood against the eleven-year-old version.

"It's ok, Cassie, once I get my body fixed over the summer, you can hug me however much you want."

Cassie beamed brightly in joy, and to Harry, that was worth all the trouble in the world.

Harry took a look at Cassie's core again, it was fully recharged, including all her reserves and the various ward stones. It was then, Harry noticed the binding around the connection to the ley lines was dissolved as well, he wondered how that happened, and asked Cassie about it.

"There was still a lot of magic available after my reserve was fully recharged, so I directed the excess to dissolve the old goat's magic," Cassie explained with pride.

Harry smiled, "Well done, Cassie. I won't be able to add good enough protections around your connection to the ley lines yet, but I could add three more connections, I doubt the old goat has the power to bind all four connections." Harry then added the connections like he did the last time, he would upgrade Cassie's primary ward stone with his own impenetrable ward scheme once he gets the Founders' blessings.

"Thanks, Daddy."

"Anything for you, my princess." Just like the last timeline, Cassie seemed to love his nickname for her.

Remembering he still had not got a plan in place yet, and he didn't have a lot of time before the old goat comes back to the Castle, so he decided to get started. Besides, having Cassie with him meant he would have a soundboard to bounce ideas with, an extremely smart one at that.

Time, that was what he needed, after losing Hermione, he always felt there was too much time on his hand, it was one of the reasons he kept himself busy traveling around the world to learn everything he could, besides, it would please Hermione once he saw her again in the afterlife.

The only reason he used time turners was so he could be ready for the next Dark Lord Wannabes, also there were just too many evils around the world that Harry's aliases were kept quite busy. And, he needed to keep up with his job in the DMLE, so people wouldn't find out about his job in the Department of Mysteries.

That reminded him about the time compression chamber in the Department of Mysteries, Harry had studied the chamber extensively after he won the Third Wizarding War, most of its capabilities came from the use of runes, and Harry still kicked himself for not taking Ancient Runes for his electives, he would make sure to not make the same mistake this time around. Harry wondered if Cassie was able to add the time compression function to the Room of Requirement, this was one aspect he didn't explore the last time around. If she could, that would solve a lot of his problems.

"Cassie," seeing her giving him her undivided attention, Harry asked, "if I project the schematics of a time compression chamber, do you think you can replicate it in this room?"

Cassie nodded excitedly, with a part of her coming from Rowena, she was eager to learn something new, especially something as exciting as time compression chamber.

"Great, give me a minute, I need to pull it out from somewhere very secure in my mind." With that said, Harry dropped into his control center.

Like the schematics of his Mind World, the schematics of the time compression chamber had the similar level of security. He pulled the information out, decrypted it, and took the schematics to his study room.

Harry had added some significant improvements to the chamber since he first used it, one improvement was increased efficiency with its use of magic. After he upgraded the time compression chamber in Department of Mysteries, the research group of the Department couldn't decide whether to be angry that someone outside the research group had done something they couldn't or to be happy that their allowance for the chamber had been increased.

In his Mind World, Harry looked at the hologram projection of the latest version of the time chamber, and wanted to see if there were anything else he could improve before handing it to Cassie, Harry wanted it to be at least draining as possible for her. Harry knew Cassie only needed the sections for time compression, Cassie could do the rest of the interior designing herself, and so he spent the next ten Mind World hours tweaking the Rune arrays allowing time compression.

When Harry finished it, the chamber could compress time at 1000 to 1 ratio, using only a quarter of the magic compared to the chamber he first used. Harry took a copy of the new design to store it in a vault, before coming out of his Mind World. In the real world, only a minute had passed.

Even though it was only a minute, Cassie was bouncing with excitement by the time Harry opened his eyes again and was looking at him expectantly. Cassie knew not to look in Harry's mind without permission, she had sensed his Occlumency defense being built rapidly throughout the day, she didn't know how it was possible, but knew Harry would explain to her soon. Once the Founders gave him control of the Castle like she knew they would, Cassie was sure Harry would allow her to roam in his mind using their mind link.

For now, Cassie would be patient, and it wasn't long before she received the schematics, as well as all the relevant tomes Harry had studied for the time compression chamber. Cassie smiled brightly as she processed all the information, she didn't know how, but Harry seemed to suddenly know her better than anyone had. How else could he possibly guess that she would want to learn all she could about time, and power runes, so she could make her own improvement?

One of the many things Harry differs greatly from Dumbledore: despite knowing he was the most powerful and one of the most knowledgeable magical users, he never assumed he knew best. Even without considering the centuries the Flamels had on him, Harry accepted those younger than he was could and most likely would know something he didn't, which was one of the many mistakes Dumbledore, Voldemort or any other self-centered man-made.

Harry also knew different people have different perspectives, and those different perspectives could lead to some of the most useful insights. From his future experience, Harry knew Cassie was both knowledgeable and could always offer him insights he would never dream of. So he wasn't surprised about what Cassie said after a new room formed around him.

"Thank you for the new tomes, Daddy. I made some changes to your design, I now could adjust the ratio of time compression in this room at will. It could now go from time passing normally to 2000 to 1 compression ratio with ease; any more would start to drain more magic from my core than the ley lines could refill. I could even freeze time in here compare to the outside, but only for a short time, as it put a serious drain on my magic. At the moment, the room is set at 2000 to 1 compression ratio" Cassie explained all this in one breath, it was clear that she was excited.

Harry smiled proudly at his daughter, oh well, he better get used to the term. Plus, this time around, Harry wanted to have children of his own. "Well done, princess, you never cease to amaze me. But," Harry suddenly turned serious. "Promise me to never make any room that would put a drain like that on you, no matter who asked."

Cassie loved it when Harry called her 'princess', she loved the look of pride in his eyes, especially when she was the one who caused it, and she would never want to disappoint her 'Daddy'. However, there were things she couldn't do, at least not yet.

Cassie said in a timid little girl's voice. "I can't, Daddy. The room was designed to become anything I could make, as long as someone made the correct request. Unless you took complete control of the Castle."

Harry sighed, he should have realized that was the reason Cassie had obeyed all of his orders in the last timeline, she was bound by the will of the Founders and thus, their heirs.

Before he did that though, he would make sure Cassie wanted him to take control. "Cassie, do you want me to take complete control of you?"

Cassie nodded rapidly. "Yes, please, Daddy. I know you won't abuse this power, this way, you could protect me against any more of the old goat's attempts to control me."

Harry pulled Cassie into a protective hug, who nuzzled into his chest. "Ok, princess, I could never say no to you. Let's say hi to the Founders."

Cassie wondered how Harry knew they needed the Founders, but then again, Harry seemed to suddenly know a lot of things, as well as to become suddenly so much more powerful magically.

Moments later, the room changed into what looked like a formal greeting room, and the four Founders appeared. Harry stood as tall as he could with his malnourished body and approached the Founders.

Having been drilled in Pureblood politics by Daphne Greengrass, Harry knew just how to greet the Founders.

Harry gave the four Founders a respective bow, and said, "It's a privilege to meet you, Founders of Hogwarts." Harry then stepped forward and shook hand with first Godric Gryffindor, "My Lord Gryffindor." Then Salazar Slytherin, "My Lord Slytherin." Moving on to the ladies, Harry took Helga's offered hand and brushed his lips against the knuckle of her middle finger, "My Lady Hufflepuff." Then did the same with Rowena, "My Lady Ravenclaw."

Godric couldn't wait for his turn to speak up and greeted back cheerfully. "It's good to finally meet you too, Harry. I had been impatient to meet you since the stone incident, I commend you for your bravery."

Having gone through this before, Harry smiled back and replied. "Thank you, my Lord."

Godric waved him off, "Oh stop this 'my Lord' non-sense. Call me Godric. Besides, you are my great-many-times-grandson, no need for formality between families." Harry just smiled back and nodded.

Slytherin went next, "I, however, must scold you for your foolishness. But, you carried yourself with dignity during our greetings, Harry James Potter, much more than Godric ever did. Where have you been hiding this side of yourself, for the last two years, I was given the impression that you do not know about our traditions at all."

Harry had the decency to blush somewhat, but his Occlumency kicked in immediately, and the blush faded away before anyone other than Salazar noticed, who was quite impressed with Harry's control. "Thank you, my Lord. I will explain in due time." Salazar nodded in acceptance, the boy was much different than he expected, a good kind of different. He didn't seem to despise him as he was expecting due to his house's current reputation. "Call me Sal, now that the formalities are over with."

Helga jumped in, "Ignore those posturing fools, Harry, thank you so much for taking care of Cassandra, she was so sad and in so much pain just an hour ago. Thank you for protecting our child. And don't you dare 'my Lady' me, call me Helga. Although I am not related to you by blood, we are all family here." She finished warmly.

Harry smiled back warmly, "There is no need to thank me, Helga. The Castle was the first place I had called home until my Occlumency became advanced enough for me to remember things before Riddle attacked my family, all my happy memories came from the Castle. I would do anything for her. I already see Cassie as my daughter, I will explain how in due time."

That was another surprise for Sal, how did this boy know Voldemort's real name, maybe he was worthy of Slytherin after all, Sal kept silent for now.

There was only Rowena left, as the Founder of the House of Intelligence, naturally, her first comment was regarding Harry's knowledge. "Those are some impressive runes, Mister Potter. No offense, but you weren't known for your impressive grades. Would your explanation includes how you came to know these runes, and have such strong defenses in your mind, even Cassie is afraid to venture into your mind now? And please, call me Rowena."

"You'll have to call me Harry then, Rowena." Harry smiled back, "and no offense taken. Yes, I will explain everything before I leave this room today. But, whatever I reveal today cannot leave this room. One, it would have dire consequences; and two, the Creator and Death themselves insisted upon it."

That was a surprise for all four of the Founders as well as Cassie, they all knew the Harry before they had changed drastically, but one thing they knew about Harry that would never change, he wouldn't deliberately put the school in danger. So they all agreed to secrecy.

"In an extremely short version, with the Creator's blessing, I was sent back from 2098 by Death, as he wasn't happy with everything that had happened." Harry wasn't sure how they were going to react, they might suddenly decide he was around the bend.

While the Founders were contemplating that one short sentence, Cassie squealed and jumped into his arms, knocking him over, damn this malnourished body. Cassie gushed on top of him, "That explained so much, I could literally feel the fatherly love you have for me in your magic during the unbinding ritual, the care, and love you had for me, literally soaked into my soul, it was why I instantly wanted to call you Daddy. Nobody loved me that much before, not even the Founders when they were alive."

Harry just held her to his chest, tears would have dropped if not for his mastery of his mind. "How could I not, Cassie? I had spent seven decades with you in my last timeline, for the last half a century of my life, not including all my travels back in time, you are all I had to keep me in this world. Only when I found a Headmaster who cared for you almost as much as I did, I went to meet Death. Coming back, you had no idea how happy I am to see you again." Harry finished, hugging her even tighter.

The Founders couldn't help but feel for the boy, no, this man. They all understood the pain of solitude, they all experienced it. They lasted for a millennium because their souls had passed on, leaving only their essence behind. Besides, they still had each other. It was only Rowena who picked up the bit on 'time travels'.

Rowena asked tenderly, breaking her often 'Ice Queen' persona. "How old were you really, before you came back."

Harry picked both himself and Cassie back up and told her. "Between the times I spent in the time compression chamber and went back in time using time turners to train and be ready for the next Dark Lord Wannabe. 415 years, give or take a year.

That drew a gasp out of everyone. "How?" Godric blurted out. Slytherin was a lot more eloquent. "I can tell you are magically powerful, but even then, no one lives that long."

Harry nodded in understanding. "People age in real time during the time spent under time compression chamber, however, I only spent twelve years in there, it didn't matter that much in the scheme of things. But, if I showed you my encounter with Death, it would answer a lot of your questions, including how I managed to survive that long."

The Founders accepted. From the last timeline, Harry knew the Founders were only physical manifestations created by Cassie from what was left behind of the Founders, so despite how real they look, they are more like 3D magical portraits, so they won't be able to enter his mind. So Harry turned to Cassie and projected what he wanted. "Cassie, if you could?"

Seeing what Harry wanted, immediately, a modified Pensieve appeared, and the room morphed into a more comfortable sitting room. Harry then invited the somewhat confused Founders to sit, before withdrawing his last memory of the past timeline from his temple. Harry could have projected his memories straight out of his mind, but this way would be a lot more relaxing for him.

The Founders watched the almost solid hologram movie with the utmost attention, when it was finished, nobody spoke for quite some time, they all needed time to process all that.

Cassie went to hug Harry tightly, knowing he was ready to die did not sit well with her, she didn't want to be alone again. Cassie started sobbing in Harry's chest, "Please don't leave me, Daddy. You can't die, who is going to protect me from the old goat." Then she looked up and looked at him with her teary eyes, Harry's heart immediately melted. Last time, it was hard to leave Cassie, only the chance of seeing his Hermione and parents again allowed him to make that final decision. This time, he knew he couldn't do that again, not with Cassie looking at him like that. "I promise not to leave you again."

Harry pulled her closer to him, with a faraway look, elaborated. "When I first met you last time, I had already lost my parents, Hermione and Luna, I was only hanging by the threads with Susan, Tracey, Daphne and Astoria keeping me sane. I knew they loved me, but I was too hurt and too afraid to ever love again. Eventually, they were all gone before their supposed time, it was just you and me. Even with all the care, I had for you, I wasn't able to love you as I should. I had looked into my soul, it literally wasn't capable to make any new connections, there was just too much hurt and regret to do so. I am sorry I didn't stay for you, my princess, I just missed them too much, and I wasn't strong enough to stay with you."

By now, both father and daughter were crying, all the Founders had tears in their eyes, it was a long time since Harry unloaded, not since Hermione's funeral. "It's ok, Daddy. You stayed just for me for fifty years, I know that version of me would appreciate you for that, and I am sure you left that me in good hands." Cassie tried to comfort her Daddy. "You have a second chance now at life, I can detect your parents and sisters' souls in you, and Hermione would awake soon enough. I don't know who Astoria is, but Daphne, Susan, Padma, and Tracey are all still here. Don't make the mistake like you did last time, make the most of this new life."

Harry nodded and just hugged her tighter. Eventually, Harry got his emotion under control, and he could feel some of the sorrow and regret melting away from his soul. "I have such a smart daughter, what am I going to do with you, my princess," Harry mumbled into Cassie's raven colored hair.

The Founders all watched this with a teary smile, they knew without a doubt Harry would take care of Cassandra, and he definitely was a worthy heir even if the Creator and Death didn't tell them so.

Eventually, Harry set Cassie beside him and extracted some more memories to show the Founders. "As you have seen, I was sent back for a purpose. Clearly, the Creator has some big goals for me, but before I could achieve any of those goals, Riddle and Dumbledore needed to be dealt with. Between Riddle's mindless killings and Dumbledore's machinations for his so-called 'Greater Good', we won't be able to achieve anything. So I need a plan to get rid of both of them, and I am not afraid to ask all of you for help. These are some memories relevant to Riddle and Dumbledore, they would help you understand both of them better."

All four Founders were pleased with the way Harry carried himself, clearly a leader, who was both powerful, intelligent and most of all, humble, the Founders looked forward to working with this young man.

The memories showed the important events from Harry's second year till the Battle of Hogwarts, some of the Third Wizarding War, and finally Harry's recruitment to the Unspeakable Battle Unit (upon checking his magical core, Harry had found, none of the Oaths he swore in the future were in effect).

Again, the Founders watched the memories with the utmost attention, they were all fascinated with Harry's creative use of the Pensieve combined with the Room, but they hadn't had a chance to comment on it. Sal was not happy Melissa died in the last timeline but understood why Harry did it and was impressed with Harry's action. He also immediately recognized the diary being a Horcrux, but Cassandra had already informed him of it. Even being quite proficient with so-called Dark Arts, Sal was disgusted by the creation of such foul item by his descendant, he was glad that he had deemed Riddle unworthy.

They were all appalled by Dementors' presence at the School but were impressed with Harry's Patronus. None of them liked the idea of Sirius Black being falsely imprisoned either, Sal had detected Too-Many-Names Dumbles' hand in it immediately, but they were all too familiar with false imprisonment from their time.

The Founders absolutely hated the tournament, they all resigned to the fact that wheels were already in motion, and they would have to accept the tournament would come to Hogwarts in just over a year's time. The Founders all sympathized with young Harry after watching Riddles resurrection and knew he wouldn't let Cedric die again.

Sal was literally seething with Snape's mind raping Harry during his fifth year, and that was not to mention the pink toad. They smiled proudly at Harry teaching the DA members and hoped Harry would start something similar soon. But they were appalled at Dumbledore's machination, they all saw Dumbledore set Harry up, and had planned for someone to die and put it on Harry's conscious.

The Founders wondered if the curse on the old goat's hand made him senile as well, he seemed to have completely lost the plot. That was until they saw Snape giving Harry the memory that led him to commit suicide, and knew the bastard planned it all along.

They had just seen how much damage the Second Wizarding War had done to Britain and wondered if the sheep in Wizarding Britain would ever learn as they watched the war raged on again after just five years of peace.

What they learned during Harry's medical check-up brought both anger and tears to the Founders. They all had a new respect for the young man who was put through all this.

The silence lasted even longer this time, after the 3D movies had ended, no one knew where to start. Until Cassie broke the silence, "Let's give Harry the rings first, regardless what we are going to do with the old goat, I won't feel safe unless Harry has complete control of my wards."

The Founders nodded, and Harry resigned himself to his fate.

The room changed into a more regal looking one, everyone stood, with Harry on one side, the four Founders and Cassie on the other. Gryffindor was the first one, as Harry was the direct descendant of the Gryffindor line. Harry knelt on one knee in front of Godric, and Godric started the ritual. "Do you, Harry James Potter, swear on your magic, to uphold the traditions and responsibilities of the Noble House of Gryffindor to the best of your abilities?"

"I swear," Harry answered with determination.

"I, Godric Gryffindor, Founder of the Noble House of Gryffindor, deemed you a worthy heir and declare you Lord and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor, so I say, so mote it be."

"So mote it be."

Harry watched as just like last time, with a flash of light between Godric and Harry, a ring with two animated griffins holding up a ruby appeared on his right ring finger.

Harry stood up, and faced Sal next and knelt in front of him on one knee. Sal started his chant. "Do you, Harry James Potter, swear on your magic, to uphold the traditions and responsibilities of the Noble House of Slytherin to the best of your abilities?"

"I swear."

"I, Salazar Slytherin, Founder of the Noble House of Slytherin, deemed you a worthy heir and declare you Lord and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Slytherin, so I say, so mote it be."

"So mote it be."

This time, after another flash of light, a ring with two animated and hissing snakes wrapped around an emerald appeared on his right index finger.

He then approached Rowena, who smiled. "As you probably know from the future, Ravenclaw is a Matriarch line, so I cannot declare you Head of House, with both your mother and Miss Granger incapacitated for now, and the time being a factor, I will declare you an heir so you would have majority claim of Hogwarts. Now, please kneel."

Harry nodded and repeated his previous actions.

"Do you, Harry James Potter, swear on your magic, to uphold the traditions and responsibilities of the Noble House of Ravenclaw to the best of your abilities?"

"I swear."

"I, Rowena Ravenclaw, Founder of the Noble House of Ravenclaw, deemed you a worthy heir and declare you heir and Lord Regent of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Ravenclaw, so I say, so mote it be."

"So mote it be."

Again, a flash of light later, a smaller ring with an animated Eagle on top of a Sapphire appeared on his left little finger.

Harry stood up. "Thank you, all of you, I won't let you down. You already know I would do anything for Cassie."

All four Founder smiled and the room changed back to the comfortable sitting room they were in before. They said in unison, "We know."

Sal continued. "Harry, I assume you have gone through that in your last timeline?" Seeing Harry's nod, Sal continued. "Did you go through the blood adoption ritual?" Again, Harry nodded. "I don't want to risk your family, but after you revive your parents, would you like to go through it again?"

Harry smiled warmly at Sal, "Yes if that is your wish, I don't mind to have another Great-Grandfather." Sal's eyes became suspiciously shiny at Harry's words.

Again, Cassie's voice broke through, which Sal was grateful for, he still had a reputation to uphold. "Congratulations, Daddy! No, the old goat won't be able to control me again, can you kick him out permanently, please?" Cassie finished her sentence with a pout, complete with a tremoring bottom lip.

Harry wondered what had he got himself into, this Cassie seemed to be even better at playing him. "My princess, put those eyes and lips away, please! I am begging you, you are going to be the death of me one day." Cassie giggled, and the Founders just laughed at him. "You know it's best if he remains in the Castle, so we can monitor him." Seeing her downcast look, Harry immediately added, damn this new soul, "But," immediately, Cassie looked up at him expectantly, and Harry sighed inwardly, I hope my twin sisters won't be this much trouble, knowing my luck, doubtful. "I will upgrade your ward stones completely with my own ward schemes. And," Seeing Cassie not satisfied, Harry continued. "I will lock him out of your wardroom completely."

Cassie nodded thoughtfully, Harry was about to release a breath of relief when Cassie suddenly asked, in the sweetest, most innocent voice she could manage. "Anything else?"

Harry wanted to pull his hair out at that moment, how could his daughter do this to him. "Yes, but this is the last thing, deal?" Cassie just nodded slowly with a small pout. "You can prank both the old goat and the dungeon bat however much you want."

Harry was literally at his wit's end and finally sighed in relief when Cassie jumped onto him, hugging him tightly. "Thank you, Daddy." What was he supposed to do to counter that?

The Founders just watched the antics of the duo with amusement. Godric scolded him. "Harry, you are going to spoil her." Cassie just blew him a raspberry.

Harry sighed with resignation. "I know, I know, what do I suppose to do?"

Helga suggested, "How about you bring in Susan and Hermione, if you didn't know already, they are true heirs of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw respectively."

"I will do that as soon as they both of adequate enough Occlumency to counter Dumbledore, I have already started Hermione on Occlumency, so she won't get bored staying in bed all day. I better get Susan started on it as well, she should know some already."

Harry then turned to Cassie, "I will take control of the main ward stone by the end of this week, I should be strong enough both physically and magically by then to put in my own ward scheme."

Cassie nodded happily and said in her little girl's voice, "Thank you, Daddy."

"Anything for you, my princess." Harry just repeated his early sentiments.

Eventually, the six people in the room got on to the planning, Harry started off. "I figured out I was sent back this far to save your Basilisk, Melissa, I was going to anyway even Death hadn't hinted at it. I knew how much pain it caused you from Melissa's death in the last timeline, Sal. For that I am sorry, and I will do everything I can to ensure she lives this time."

Sal brightened at this, he had nursed Melissa from a chicken egg, and he would hate seeing her die again. "Thank you, Harry. That meant a lot to me. I am sorry she had harmed Hermione, I know that was the real reason you went down to my Chamber. Given the girl would be taken to the Chamber in less than twenty days, shall we plan for this first?"

Everyone agreed, Sal asked the first key question. "I know the girl was one of those who betrayed you, do you still plan to save her."

Harry had contemplated for a long time before this, during his revenge rampage after Hermione's death, he had scanned Ginevra's memories. Harry realized Ginevra had been brainwashed to marry the Boy-Who-Lived by any means necessary, therefore stole his chance to be with Hermione by feeding him love potions.

Was she guilty? Definitely. Did she deserve to die? Maybe not. Even during his rampage, he had shown her some mercy by leaving her in Azkaban, with all the Dementors gone, she didn't suffer that much. So no, he couldn't leave her to die at eleven either. Harry wished he could plant something to take away her obsession, but the programming by Molly the Harpy was too deep for a simple Trojan horse to deal with. He probably needed to spend hours personally to dive into her mind to undo all the damage, he might just do that one day.

"Yes, it wasn't her fault to have Molly Weasley as her mother. I had discovered in the future, Ginevra was literally brainwashed by her to believe she was fated to marry Boy-Who-Lived, what she needs is a mind healer to start the initial step, maybe one day, when Dumbledore and Riddle are both dealt with, I would personally dive into her mind to undo all the programming. For now, I have to hide my Legilimency abilities. Besides, saving her was the key to stop Riddle. The question is, do I wait until the last minute so she can own me a life debt or not."

The Founders were quite happy with the direction they were heading, so all six put their heads together and discussed their options. One thing Harry asked was if Riddle had bind Melissa to him somehow.

Sal answered that question, "Luckily, no. All snakes will obey commands from any speakers, unless they become someone's familiar, only then, would they only obey the command of their master. Melissa was bonded to me, however, as I am no longer alive, and I couldn't come out of my portrait at the time to countermand Riddle's commands, I couldn't stop the attacks." Sal then brightened. "Harry, although I can come out of my portrait now, due to how much stronger Cassie is, I think it would still be the best to ask her to bond to you as familiar, she might be of help to you that way if a battle comes to Hogwarts again."

Harry nodded, "We should do that, as there won't be any more attacks, other than Ginevra being kidnapped, we will wait until the last minute. If a life debt was created, then it would be a bonus, as I could then force her to see a mind healer, if not, we will think of something else. But I should bond with Melissa before that happens, I sure will enjoy the look on Riddle's face, when he realizes Melissa listens to my command over his."

The Founders chuckled at that thought.

Sal then questioned about Ronald's ability to enter the Chamber in the last timeline, as Parseltongue can't be mimicked. Harry had a scowl then explained. "He didn't, Hermione found a spell to project memories, and used it on the weasel, but she was so doped up on love and loyalty potions, she didn't correct the weasel's claim afterward."

Sal was satisfied with this but still asked if Harry could work with Cassie sometimes to upgrade the wards around the entrance of the Chamber.

Eventually, they moved on to other problems, they talked about Dumbledore and Riddle, Fawkes and Hedwig; Harry's monitors and the blood ward in 4 Privet Drive; Harry's parents and godparents; Gringotts; alliances in the Wizengamot and the Ministry; the Hogwarts' staffs; Harry's medical treatments and lastly, Harry's allies in the student population, including his girls, which made Harry blush when the Founders referred to them as such.

So, there were quite a lot of things to plan for, and they decided to plan for individual problems one at a time first, then group the plans together see if any plan clashes with another. After ten hours of planning, they finally came up with a working plan. Luckily the house-elves were now loyal to Harry and at Harry's disposal, they brought plenty of refreshment for him, Harry wasn't starved to death.

Then Harry showed them the memory of their first meeting in the last timeline, at the Founders' request.

Flashback

It wasn't long after Harry's first meeting with Cassie, had she introduced him to the Founders. The greetings were remarkably similar, except for Sal's rants about killing Melissa.

Harry was surprised when the Godric and Sal passed him the Head of House rings, and Rowena the heir ring. He already knew he was descendant of both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and magical heir to Slytherin, after he finally resolved the problems with Gringotts from the break-in, and went for an inheritance test. Despite not having any assets in Gringotts, as the bank was formed after the Founders' time, Goblin magic was still able to trace his lineage back to the Founders. But Harry was also told by the Goblins, the passage of Headships of the Houses of the Founders was lost in time. Thus, Harry was surprised at becoming Head of two of the Founders' Houses and heir of another.

During the rest of their first meeting, they mainly talked about how to make the school better, and undo the damages done by the old goat.

Eventually, Harry decided to check on Cassie's ward stones, Harry couldn't say he was an expert with ward then, nor was he proficient at runes. That was when he decided to spend some time using his time turner to study Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, and maybe spend a few decades with Gringotts as Curse-Breaker and Ward-Master.

Flashback Ends

Eventually, Harry came out of the Room of Requirement with his new rings disillusioned, it wouldn't do to let everyone know he now controls Hogwarts yet. He had spent just over 24 hours in the Room, of four hours he used to meditate to rest his mind, which was all he needed instead of sleeping for eight hours due to his Mastery of Mind Arts. Back in real time, it was still the same day, and Lunch had not started yet, Harry decided to visit Hermione in the Hospital Wing.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful for Harry, having remembered every detail of his life, it was quite easy for Harry to fall back into the character of a student. That was only on the surface though, Harry Potter had been carefully observing everyone's actions, determining who was trustworthy and who was not.

As planned, Harry would start a new study group next year, where everyone who was willing to work could join, this would hopefully slowly shift their loyalty towards him. Of those he determined trustworthy, he would invite them to a secret group within the study group, teach them advanced Occlumency, and eventually reveal his plans when their Occlumency defenses are up to standard.

Harry had a small list of people to join his secret group, his girls, of course: Hermione Granger, Susan Bones, Luna Lovegood, Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Astoria Greengrass and Padma Patil. Padma was a very different story compared to others, therefore required a different approach. Astoria had not started at Hogwarts yet, but Daphne should bring her up to speed during this summer, maybe a personal visit to an allied House could be scheduled.

Outside his girls, there was Su Li and Hannah Abbott who needed to be cured of sheeple syndrome, Parvati Patil who needed an attitude adjustment, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet among few others.

Then there was Penelope Clearwater, Harry decided to warn her about Percival Weasley the next chance he got, he knew they had just started dating, such a shame that big headed ass kisser would get dumped before their relationship really got started.

Among the boys, Harry only trusted Neville Longbottom who needed to see a healer as soon as possible and get a new wand, for Merlin's sake.

Harry wasn't sure what to do about Fred and George Weasley, he had found out they were never part of the conspiracy. They had their suspicions regarding love potions but thought those were for pranks, so they never acted upon it. Harry decided to leave George be in his last timeline, he had suffered enough losing his twin. For now, Harry decided to have them and Lee Jordan in the general group, they needed an attitude adjustment to regain his trust.

During their planning, the Founders, Cassie and Harry all agreed that he needed to regain his Royal Phoenix form as soon as possible, so the MOB wouldn't be able to use Fawkes to paint himself as the Leader of Light. In addition, having a White Phoenix, Harry could dispute any comment from the MOB that he was going dark.

Besides, Harry also needed to heal his malnourished body as soon as possible, so he could get rid of the bindings on his magical core as well as his glasses. Hence his first stop after the day's classes would be the Hospital Wing to see Poppy Pomfrey, Harry would hit two birds with one stone with this move, as this could start the chain process of removing the MOB's support from Hogwarts' staffs.

Mind Arts, it all came back to Occlumency again. To ensure the allies he recruited to not fell under the MOB's thumbs again, Harry needed all his allies to be at least somewhat proficient at Occlumency, so any mind-altering magic would be fruitless against them.

It took Harry centuries to build all the defenses he had now in his Mind World. Although his allies, and to be honest, even himself, didn't need the level of Occlumency he had, but he still needed some way to effectively teach all his allies to be proficient enough with Occlumency to at least be aware of any mind-altering magic being performed on them, so they could seek help from the Healers before doing anything they didn't want to do.

Only for his most trusted allies, Harry would teach them all he knew about Mind Arts, however, he would keep the method of planting Trojan horses to himself for now. Maybe one day, he would teach it to his girls. For now, that technique was too dangerous to be known by anyone.

During the next two classes, Harry acted his part as a student, keenly observed the people around him, and in his Mind World, he furiously worked to find a way to teach Occlumency to his allies.

Linked books, Harry decided in the end. Each of his allies would have a book that was keyed to them by blood and magic signature, only the person keyed to the book could read it. Harry would have a master book, in which he would be able to add and delete the content of each of the linked books. The linked books would also act as a communication device until he could make upgraded versions of the two-way mirrors.

During DADA with Flophart, Harry used Legilimency on the fraud to force him to head to the DMLE, and confess to all of his crimes. Harry then headed straight to the Hospital Wing after the class was dismissed early.


	4. The Hospital Wing

Harry went directly to Poppy, he wasn't sure how this meeting would go, as by the time he returned to Hogwarts in the last timeline, Poppy had retired for quite some time, citing too much suffering in Magical Britain. Harry never learned why Poppy ignored his obvious state of malnutrition. So Harry decided to take the direct approach.

"Madam Pomfrey?" Harry called out evenly.

"Yes, Mister Potter."

Harry then threw up a range of privacy wards around them, if Poppy was surprised by his skills at casting wards, she didn't show it. Harry then asked calmly. "How come you never treated my obvious state of malnutrition nor reported the abuse I have suffered?"

Poppy's eyes seemed to glaze over, and it was a long moment before she said anything. "I had spoken to Albus about it since the first time you visited the Hospital Wing in your first year, he said he would deal with it. It was clear he didn't when you returned for your second year, so I had spoken to him again, but he said, as your magical guardian, he forbids me to approach you about it, he would speak to you in due time. I am not sure why I followed through, as I would normally report to St Mungo's straight away. But surely, Albus had your best interest at heart, so let's just wait for his return to see what he says."

Harry was seething on the inside, but his Occlumency quickly jumped in. His mind could always determine whether someone was telling the truth, without Harry using any active Legilimency probes, but by analysing the person's body language, micro-expressions among other things. At the moment, Harry's HUD was telling him that she was telling the truth, so he quickly formed a course of actions in his mind.

"Do you have flushing potions at hand, Madam Pomfrey?" Harry asked gently.

"Yes, Mister Potter, what for?" Then a light bulb came on, "Surely you don't think …"

"Yes, I do, Madam." Harry cut her off. "I can tell you are refusing to believe it, if I am wrong, there was no harm drinking a dose of flushing potion, is there?" Harry laced his words with some compulsion, he hated to use the same technique the MOB often used, but his manipulation was for Poppy's health, and that set him apart from the MOB. Besides, he would make sure to not make a habit of it, and vow to himself now, to never take away his allies' free will.

Poppy answered, "No, there isn't." And promptly drank a dose of flushing potion.

The effect was immediate, Poppy immediately ran to the sink, and vomited. Half an hour later, she returned and seemed to be confused and angry. "I can't believe that bastard would do that to a colleague, what was he playing at? I will go get some nutrient potions and growth potions and start to file a report to the DMLE now. I am so sorry, Mister Potter."

Before she could continue, Harry gently stopped her. "Poppy, stop, and relax. I don't blame you at all." Harry checked that his privacy wards was still up and continued. "Can you hold off the report for the DMLE?"

"Why?"

"Because I don't think you are the only staff member who is under the influence of mind-altering potions." The realisation of the severity of the situation dawned upon Poppy as Harry continued his explanation. "And I don't want to give Dumbledore a reason to come back to Hogwarts early before everyone is free from and aware of the old goat's manipulations." Poppy nodded as Harry continued. "I suggest you contact a couple of Mind Healers from St Mungo's first thing tomorrow, to check every staff member including yourself and except for Snape, for both mind-altering potions and memory charms."

"Why not Snape?"

Harry retorted back softly, "Who do you think brewed the potions for Dumbledore?" Poppy nodded immediately in understanding but hesitantly asked another question.

"Do you really think Albus would stoop so low as to use memory charms on us?"

Harry looked at her searchingly. "Do you remember coming to visit me at my relatives' house, because I was too badly injured to heal on my own?" At Poppy negative shake, Harry continued. "That's because that old goat obliviated the both of us after the events, a total of five times. And that is why I want a Mind Healer to check all of you, who knows what other charms he had casted on you without you knowing. I found a mental stunting charm on mine, which I dissolved with my Occlumency."

"Was that how you remembered those events despite being obliviated, because of your Occlumency?" At Harry's nod, Poppy continued. "That is some of the most advanced forms of magic, Mister Potter, do you think you could send me the books you used to learn the Art?"

Harry smiled, this was going better than he expected, "Of course, I will do you one better. Mind Arts is only hard because people make it out to be, I will get you a copy of my own notes on learning Occlumency, and you should be immune to or at least aware of any mind-altering magic in no time." At Poppy's grateful smile, Harry bowed his head a little in shame. "I must confess I had used some compulsion charm to get you to drink the flushing potion, I promise I won't do it again."

Poppy frowned for a second, before she smiled back at him warmly. "I am glad you did, Harry." Before telling him in a mock stern voice. "I will forgive you this one time, Mister Potter."

Harry just grinned back, and mock saluted. "Yes, Ma'am."

A moment later, Harry turned serious again. "I will let you know when I am ready to file charges against the old goat, so you can file those reports to the DMLE. But don't let me stop you from reporting Dumbledore's transgression against the staff of Hogwarts to the DMLE, after you had everyone except Snape checked out by a Mind Healer."

Poppy nodded in acceptance.

"Oh, just to let you know, don't worry about that fraud Lockhart, he had suddenly developed a conscious and decided to confess his liberal and illegal use of memory charms to the DMLE." Harry said this to Poppy with a twinkle in his eyes, and inwardly, Harry thanked Merlin that Flophart lacked the mental discipline to use his memory charms properly, and had at least some brain cells to realise he would risk being discovered, if students started turning up without any memories.

Poppy smirked at the implication of Harry's words, she was glad that this clearly powerful wizard decided to use his power for good, and was nothing like You-Know-Who nor Albus Dumbledore.

Harry steered back the conversation to what he came here for, "Meanwhile, Poppy, could you get me enough potions to fix my malnutrition?"

Poppy immediately left to fetch the potions, moments later, she came back with a case of nutrient potions, and told him sternly. "These are nutrient and growth potion mixtures. Only two doses per 24 hours, you will also have an increased appetite, don't fight it, and eat as much as you can. Also you will need to do stretches every day, to allow your muscles to grow to the correct length, I have included the instructions for the stretches in that case. You should be done in a month, but I have put in enough doses for six weeks. So hopefully, you will be at your correct height by the time you leave for the summer. Thank Merlin you came to me now, all the damages are still reversible, if you left this until after you graduate, you would never grow to your full height."

That last statement was news to Harry, the Healers at the Department of Mysteries never told him that, but then again, he was already six foot one when he came out of the time compression chamber. If Poppy was right, and he had no reason to doubt her, he would be even taller when he finished growing in this timeline.

"Thank you, Poppy." Harry smiled warmly at her. Before Harry took the ward down, Harry remembered about Penelope, and suddenly had an idea. He asked Poppy softly, "Could you please check Penny for any mind altering potions."

Poppy wasn't sure where Harry was going with this but decided to trust Harry's judgment. Poppy nodded, Harry then took down the wards and followed Poppy to Penelope's bed. To Poppy's shock and disgust, she had indeed detected mild love potions keyed to Percival Weasley. Harry wasn't surprised, it just confirmed another Weasley's sentence.

"How did you know?" Poppy asked Harry after informing him of what she had found.

Harry merely replied, "Molly Prewett."

Realisation dawned upon Poppy, and she nodded. "Say no more."

Harry would have smiled, if the situation wasn't so serious. He set up the privacy wards again and turned to Poppy. "Please don't ask me how I know this, but trust me Poppy, in her petrified state, Penny can still hear us."

Poppy hesitated for a moment, to be honest, petrification cases like these were unprecedented, she really couldn't refute Harry's statement without any evidence, so she nodded in acceptance.

Seeing her acceptance, Harry continued. "While you can only flush out the potions in her system after she wake up, I can get you both started on Occlumency now. It shouldn't take more than an hour for me to explain the basic concepts to get you both started, so you have something to work on until I can compile all my notes on Mind Arts and make copies of them. Do you want to get started now?"

Poppy decided that was for the best, and again, nodded in acceptance. Both Harry and Poppy found a seat each close to Penny's bed, Harry then entered his 'Professor' mode, and started to teach Penny and Poppy Mind Arts.

An hour later, Harry took down the wards, left Poppy behind in her meditation and went to see Hermione. Harry talked to Hermione about inconsequential things for half an hour before saying goodbye to her.

Dinner was uneventful, other than another one of his Legilimency probes sending Ronald to Malfoy again. To Harry's amusement, another fist fight broke out, and both bigots were sent to the Hospital Wing again. Harry wondered when those two so-called 'Pure-bloods' would remember they were wizards and start to use their wands.

That was also when he noticed a pair of eyes watching him intently, a pair of beautiful and icy blue eyes belonging to the resident 'Ice Queen' Daphne Greengrass. When he did, he just smirked, winked at her, and stood up to leave the Great Hall by himself, without observing Daphne's reaction. He knew Daphne's curiosity would be driven through the roof, by his actions just now. After all, Harry did get to know her quite well in the last timeline, this time, Harry did not plan to lose her ever again.

Moments later, Harry arrived at the Room of Requirement and started his training. When he came out of the room two hours later, he would be in peak physical condition again.

Harry spent exactly five months in the Room of Requirement in time compression, which was just under two hours in real time.

For every day in those five months, Harry did three sets of five-hour training periods, a period of three hours of doing various projects and a period of six hours in deep meditation.

Each of the five-hour training periods consisted of magical training then physical training for a total of four hours, and an hour to eat and rest. Harry scheduled his training this way so he wouldn't do physical training right after eating to avoid upsetting his stomach.

The food was provided by Hogwarts' house elves, and was always on time.

The six hours of deep meditation would negate Harry's need for sleep. Harry usually only needed four hours of deep meditation per day, but he allocated two additional hours during his retraining to allow his body to recover from the day's more-intense-than-usual training.

The deep meditation technique was taught to him by the Vampire Elders who were even more paranoid than Moody and nearly as paranoid as him. Harry had modified the technique to be compatible with his Mind World. It allowed Harry to completely shut down his mind except for two AIs: one would monitor any alert wards he had set up, the other would scan for any danger in the vicinity of him and his bonded. This way, he could keep his brain at an extremely low activity while still aware of and be able to react to any potential attacks.

Harry magical training served to get his younger body to be able to command magic like he used to before his rebirth, as he already had more than enough magical knowledge stored in his virtual library.

So to start off his magical training, Harry needed to open the magical channels around his body, and the best way to start on that was meditation. Once his magical channels were open again, it would be much easier for him to fill his being with magic with just a thought; thus it would be easier to call upon his Animagus forms, cast Patronuses, as well as teleport using various methods.

Diving into his magical core, Harry pushed his magic into what was available in the currently very narrow magical channels around his body; when they were all filled up, he pushed some more magic in, before drawing magic back to his core; he then repeated that process over and over again. Two hours later, Harry came out of his meditation, soaked in sweat. With the help of his Mind Magic, Harry had made significant progress in those two hours, but it was still tiring to constantly manipulate his magic like that.

Harry did this during the time allocated for magical training for two days before moving on to the next stage.

This time, instead of pushing out and pulling in his magic, Harry continued to push magic out after he filled his magical channels, and used the magic pushed to the surface of his body to form a simple shield charm all around him. This allowed a continuous flow of magic through the magical channels, albeit not very fast as the Protego Shield Charm was relatively low powered.

Harry then amped the shield up to an Aegis Shield Charm, which could block much higher powered curses, including Reductos.

Harry held the charm for half an hour before pushing more magic into it and cast an Aegis Firmus Shield, which looked like a solid layer around Harry; Harry pushed further, and the layer got thicker. This shield was strong enough to stop a weakly-cast unforgivable. Harry only held this shield for ten minutes before he was exhausted, as he still didn't have the use of his full core.

Harry followed this principle using charms with increasing power requirement for a week; the last charm he used was a modified version of the Patronus Charm that could destroy a Dementor completely. On his tenth day in the Room of Requirement, Harry was satisfied with the state of his magical channels, and started his retraining for his animagus transformations.

As planned, Harry focused on his Royal Phoenix form first.

Although Animagus Transformation was taught in Transfiguration, under Self-Transfiguration, the processes between transfiguring oneself and transforming to one's animagus form were nothing alike.

Nearly everything taught about Animagus Transformation in any magical school was wrong, although each institute seemed to get different parts of it right, and used different potions to help with the rest of the transformation; but the end result was, no one had more than one animagus form, and it took the wizard or witch years to achieve transformation.

Harry was taught by one of the many magical Native American tribes he had met during his travels; needless to say, they were much more in touch with their inner spirits.

Spirit was the key word for Animagus Transformation. An animagus form was an animal spirit representing the person's true-self: his personalities, desires, and characteristics. However, a person's true-self was subject to change as they aged, especially by traumatic events. Harry had experienced more traumatic events than he cared to count in his four centuries of life; it was also the reason why Harry had many animagus forms.

As a magical human, all one needed to do to achieve the transformation was to find their animal spirit, accept it, fill their body with magic, and allow the spirit to take over said body; the magic would do the work of the transformation.

Care had to be taken to not let their mind to be completely overtaken by the spirit, as then they wouldn't be able to transform back. Thus, a mastery over Mind Arts would very much help with Animagus Transformation.

Given this was Harry's first transformation to this particular form in this body, Harry decided to take it nice and slow. The spirit of the Royal Phoenix was a special case among Harry's other animagus forms, in that the Royal Phoenix had its own life before coming to join Harry in spirit. Nevertheless, the process of the transformation was the same.

Harry dived into his Mind World, and found the Royal Phoenix in the ecosystem Harry had created for all of his animagus spirits. Harry let himself join with the Royal Phoenix, and flew around his Mind World to relearn every detail about his Royal Phoenix form. Once Harry was satisfied, Harry separated himself from the Royal Phoenix, but asked it to stay with him.

Harry then reached into his magical core, allowed his magic to fill every part of his body, including the clothes he was wearing, and allowed himself to merge with the Royal Phoenix again. As he did that, his physical body and any items on him disappeared; in his place was a Royal Phoenix. He had a golden head, with the rest of his feathers mixed between red and black.

Harry felt his own mind as well as the Royal Phoenix spiritual mind and instantly knew what to do to force a burning day for Hedwig and Fawkes.

Harry also knew if he went through a burning day in this form, her human body would be healed as well; all his scars would disappear, except for the lightning bolt, of course, all the incorrectly healed bones would be good as new, and the only thing he would need to take care of was his malnutrition.

Harry also realized, while going through burning day, if he wished, any of his blood being used for magic, whether it was inside his body or not, could burn with him. So in one fell scoop, Harry could destroy all of the MOB's blood monitoring devices, as well as the blood ward around 4 Privet Drive. Because to set up blood ward based on his blood, his blood was needed to power the runes on the ward stones.

With all these positives, the only downside was that Harry would have to stay in his Royal Phoenix form for 72 hours, to allow the Royal Phoenix's body to grow back. But that point was moot, as 72 hours in the Room would be barely over two minutes outside in real time.

Making his mind up, Harry initiated a burning day for himself. He allowed the Royal Phoenix spirit to do the work; a flash of golden flame later, a beautiful phoenix was gone, and a half-plucked turkey was left behind.

The following three days were very boring for Harry, as there wasn't much he could do in his half-plucked turkey form; he did chat with and learn from the Royal Phoenix spirit though.

The wait was worth it for Harry. When he transformed back to his human body again from a beautiful and fully-grown Royal Phoenix, Harry was surprised by how healthy he felt; he could tell all his scars except the lightning bolt were gone, and there were pains he didn't remember being there that had disappeared; all in all, Harry felt great.

And just like in the last timeline, the mage sight ability from the Royal Phoenix was transferred to his human form after his first transformation.

Harry dived into his magical core again, and saw all the blood monitoring branches were gone, and there was no longer a blood ward draining from his magical core. So except for the eleven layers of bindings leaving him with 0.05% of his magical core, the third draining to keep his parents and sisters alive, and the quarter draining to supply his mother's sacrificial protection, the rest, which was just over 0.02% of his magical core, was all his to use.

Harry immediately collected a vial of his tears from his Royal Phoenix form, and added a drop to each dose of his growth/nutrient potion mixtures; only then did Harry start taking his daily two doses of potion mixtures.

Harry knew from experiments in his past life, the phoenix tears would make the potion mixtures much more potent, and his recovery from malnutrition much more pleasant. He could still remember the pain he had suffered in the time chamber in the Department of Mysteries, during his recovery from malnutrition in the last timeline.

After three days of rest, Harry restarted his training as rigorously as ever. Up to this point, Harry's physical training was mostly endurance based: running, cycling, swimming and so on. For Harry, who had been keeping up with his physical fitness for four centuries, he had to force himself to remember that his younger malnourished body needed to be built up slowly. So Harry did just that.

Most Pure-bloods neglected to do any physical training. They didn't seem to understand that being physically fit meant there was more magic available to use for casting. Besides, the best defence to any offensive spell was to not be there. By dodging instead of shielding, you freed up magic for offensive spells. Getting physically fit was the first step to get better at dodging spells.

On the third week of his training, Harry added resistance training, circuits, assault courses and started to practice martial arts katas. Having spent a decade in the muggle side of the US Army, and another decade in the British Army, Harry knew precisely how to condition his body.

By the third month of his training, Harry had re-mastered all of his old animagus forms as well as mastered his two new animagus forms during his magical training. Harry had also mastered all of his teleportation techniques; the only thing left to do for pure magical training was to make sure he could cast anything he had learned wandlessly. For physical training, Harry had started to fight dummies using hand-to-hand, knives and swords.

It was the fourth month in the Room of Requirement; Harry had changed from a barely five-foot skinny little boy to a five-foot-six lean-muscled young man, as his powerful magic forced his height towards the top five percentile of his age.

Harry had stopped his magical training as he had re-mastered every spell he had learned in his previous life. His physical training had come along nicely; picking up how to fight again wasn't that hard once his body could keep up with the exertion, as all of his fighting experiences were safely stored in his Mind World.

It was time to combine his physical training with magical training. Harry adjusted his schedule to training, project, training, training, and meditation. For the first hour in the last training period each day, Harry would review all his fights during that day, then analyze and build new strategies, spell chains and etc.; he would then spend the rest of that training period conditioning his body.

Again, this new training schedule allowed him to avoid any physical exertion right after a meal.

The Founders and Cassie had also joined him during the last two months of his training. Cassie especially was a formidable opponent, as she could copy everything Harry did as well as develop her own strategies. In addition, her magical core was much larger than Harry's bound core, and her physical manifestation could become any shape and any material, including the material used in that killing-curse-proof-bullet-proof full-body battle suit Cassie was helping Harry to make during his project period.

Harry could have cursed himself for showing Cassie the molecular structure of the material used for his battle suit, but if anything, Harry enjoyed a challenge.

With his intuition and creativity, Harry could somehow keep up with Cassie, just barely.

Soon, Harry's five months of retraining was concluded. They were five very productive months for Harry: he had recovered from his malnutrition, and was now five-foot-seven with a perfect athletic build; he was now a better fighter than even before his rebirth, both magically and physically; and with the help from Cassie, the Founders and the Room of Requirement, he had completed many side projects, but that was a story for another time.

Harry had not released any more bindings on his magical core; this allowed him to reach close to magical exhaustion during training and thus allowed his already enormous magical core to grow even bigger. This worked for him as he knew he would be able to share his magic with his girls and familiars once he bonded with them. This magical boost would allow them to better protect themselves. Harry was all for protection of his bonded by whatever means necessary without excessively coddling them.

Harry wondered if he should give the old goat a chance to bind his magical core again at the end of this year to aid further expansion of his core, but Harry wasn't sure if the MOB could if he tried. Given how much more powerful he was now compared to the old coot, even with eleven layers of bindings around his magical core, Harry doubted any new bindings could take hold.

To prevent any of the MOB's spying charms or illegal Legilimency probes from finding out about his new body before the right time, before leaving the Room of Requirement, Harry applied a glamour he learned from the High Elves, a glamour even that magical eye of Moody's couldn't see through. Harry wanted to surprise the MOB when he started to present evidence against the old goat in court.

Checking the time, it was already nine o'clock in the evening, but Harry still had much to do. Harry planned to take away the MOB's phoenix next, and he planned to initiate Hedwig's and Fawkes' burning days together. It was time to visit his beloved owl/would-be-White-Phoenix, another dear friend he had lost in the last timeline and could place the blame on the MOB.

Harry Shifted to the Owlery. Shifting was his primary method of magical transportation to known places; the principles were very similar to Apparition. After learning House-Elf Apparition (Popping) by accident (Popping Ron to Voldemort's cave), Harry decided to develop his own method of magical transportation, so that he couldn't be trapped by any Anti-Apparition and Anti-Portkey wards. Shifting was the first of a number of transportation methods he invented, and was also used most by him.

Like Apparition, mental discipline was the key, but unlike Apparition, Shifting was much more natural and less forced. Harry pushed his magic to fill every part of him, which came as a second nature now due to his retraining. Then, Harry simply imagined himself standing in the middle of the Owlery, and let his magic do the work. There wasn't any squeezing through the tube feeling, nor was there any cracking sound; he was simply in the Room of Requirement one second, and standing in the Owlery in the next.

Immediately, Hedwig dropped onto his right shoulder, and nipped his ear affectionately. Harry looked into her expressive eyes, and muttered, "Hi, girl." He started stroking her feathers, and it wasn't long before he collapsed on to the ground against a wall and let the tears drop. Harry didn't realise how much he missed Hedwig until he saw her. For six years, Hedwig was his constant companion; even Hermione wasn't there with him during the long and lonely summers.

"I missed you so much. Don't ever leave me again, ok girl?"

Hedwig had felt the change in his human; she had been waiting for him to visit her to find out what was going on, but she didn't expect him to become this emotional. Hedwig could understand everything her human said, but her human wasn't exactly being eloquent at the moment. For now, she would try to comfort him as much as she could.

Harry chuckled to himself as he felt Hedwig trying to wipe his tears off with her wings, and felt yet another burden lifted from his soul. He smiled at her, kissed the beautiful bird on the top of her head, and started talking to her.

"Thank you, Hedwig. I know you initiated a familiar bond with me, but I never finalized it. I am sorry about that; I didn't mean to not accept your bond, I just didn't know."

Harry paused for a second to see Hedwig staring at him intently, as if to say, "Took you long enough."

Harry chuckled again at his owl's antics; he seemed to attract hard-headed females. "Hey, I said I am sorry; how about we complete the bond now?" Hedwig hooted affirmatively, complete with bobbing her head up and down. Harry smiled and stared into her eyes. He reached into his magical core, allowed a branch to come out, and willed the branch towards Hedwig.

Seconds later, Harry saw both of them were enveloped in a soft white glow before the glow faded. Being ultra-aware of his body, Harry felt a tattoo forming on his chest. Loosening the top few buttons on his shirt, Harry found an animated tattoo, about the size of his fist, in the image of his beautiful owl. Harry smiled approvingly at his new tattoo.

Buttoning up his shirt again, Harry checked on his magical core and his soul; his parents and sisters were all safe and sound, frozen peacefully. A branch of his magic reached towards Hedwig, and he could tell it was a symbiotic relationship. Harry could also tell there was a tiny connection between their souls; it wasn't an anchoring bond, more of a communication bond.

Harry had learned from the Native Americans that the familiar bond would allow the familiar and the master to share their magic; usually the familiar had the most to gain. The sharing of magic included sharing of mind protections, meaning, if the master had impenetrable Occlumency, the familiar's mind would be protected too. Thus, Harry decided to bring the communication bond in towards his Mind World, and went to his control centre, to key in Hedwig, so she would have access to his memories and thoughts.

Hedwig saw the bond form, felt her human's powerful magic, and her access to it. She then felt her human expand the bond, and saw her human's mind. It was a beautiful and scary place; who knew her human could have such a developed mind? Maybe he was good for more than feeding her bacon after all.

Hedwig felt her human give her the information on how to access his memories; now she would know how to navigate through the scary place that was her human's mind. Maybe now she could find out why her human had become so emotional suddenly. Hedwig then watched the highlights of everything her human had been through; he had had such a long and lonely life without her. She now understood why her human had cried over her.

She felt proud to have saved her human's life in the future, and knew she wouldn't hesitate to do it again, but she hoped it wouldn't come to that. Then she saw her human's conversation with Death, and Hedwig became excited knowing she would soon be able to show up that red flaming chicken; she would be more beautiful than ever.

Unknown to Hedwig, some of her stray thoughts were heard by Harry, who just shook his head in amusement at Hedwig's vanity.

Harry mentally reached out to Hedwig, and asked.

"I am going to fetch Fawkes, so I can free him from the MOB's enslavement. Would you like to wait outside the Room of Requirement, and we will see if you could experience your first burning day then?"

Hedwig just looked at her human with an expression clearly says 'Do you even have to ask?' except for the first time, Harry could hear his companion in his head. Harry kissed the beautiful bird again on the top of her head, thought to her "See you soon!" and transformed into his Royal Phoenix form, before Flaming into the Headmaster's Office.

The Headmaster's office was empty at the time, except for Fawkes and Alistair the Sorting Hat.

Harry saw the whole area where the MOB had left the silver trinkets/monitoring devices was burnt, and all that left was ashes and burn marks. Harry was quite satisfied with the result, and turned his attention to Fawkes.

Fawkes was woken by something burning in the whiskered wanker's office; he recognized everything that had burned was used to monitor the Chosen One. Fawkes was ecstatic that one of the whiskered wanker's plans for the boy was literally in ashes, but dreading what the whiskered wanker would do to him. It was evident that a phoenix fire had destroyed the silver trinkets; oh how he wished he had chosen to go through a burning day somewhere else all those years ago, somewhere the whiskered wanker wouldn't happen upon him and enslave him when he was at his weakest.

Just as Fawkes started to sulk, he was surprised to see another phoenix Flaming in; even more surprising, it was the Royal Phoenix, his King. The Royal Phoenix was even bigger than his swan-sized body. Fawkes knew his salvation had come, and couldn't wait to get away from the whiskered wanker's control.

Fawkes immediately started to trill, and started to communicate with Harry. Harry flew to Fawkes and Flamed him back to the Room of Requirement, where Hedwig was anxiously waiting for him.

The three birds entered the Room of Requirement. Harry told both Hedwig and Fawkes to perch next to him, and initiated a burning day for both of them. A flash of golden flame enveloped all three birds. After the flame had died down, Harry retained his fully grown Royal Phoenix form, but both Hedwig and Fawkes climbed out of their ashes looking like half-plucked chickens.

Needless to say, Hedwig did not enjoy the process, and started ranting to Harry. "Harry, I look like a half-plucked turkey; I want my beautiful white feathers back. This is not even funny."

To which, Fawkes retorted, "So do I, but you don't see me complaining about it. I am stuck in this form just as you are for three full days. Sit tight, you will get all your feathers back in less than two days, and grow to full size in three, then you won't need to go through this again for another year."

Hedwig just mentally huffed, and carried on muttering about her poor feathers.

Harry transformed to his base form, and immediately sensed a change to his Hedwig tattoo. Harry then checked the tattoo, and noticed it had changed to that of a White Phoenix. He wasn't really surprised, to be honest.

Harry knelt down, cradled both new-born phoenixes in his arms, and carried them to the perches provided by the Room.

Harry called out for Cassie, who immediately appeared next to her daddy and started cooing to the new-born phoenixes.

"Cassie, could you look after these two, please? I need to head back to the Gryffindor Tower; I don't want a search party to start looking for me," asked Harry gently while watching his daughter playing with Hedwig and Fawkes.

"Sure, Daddy!" Cassie was still gushing around the phoenixes, so she answered without a backward glance.

Harry then turned to Hedwig. "Don't be too hard on Fawkes, girl; he had a few decades of hard life imprisoned by the old goat. I sure know that doesn't feel good."

"Sure, Harry, no need to guilt trip me."

Harry chuckled at Hedwig's wit. "Wasn't trying to, girl." He then turned to Fawkes. "You will be safe here for now Fawkes. I am not sure where you are going to go afterward, but please don't leave without saying goodbye."

Fawkes trilled as the spirit of the Royal Phoenix helped him to understand the new-born phoenix. [Although I do wish to bond with you, Harry, I don't think Her Highness Hedwig would be happy about it.] Harry chuckled at Fawkes' sarcastic remark for Hedwig. [I can sense the difference in you since you last visited, not to mention you have somehow gained the allegiance from the spirit of the Royal Phoenix. Whatever your plans are, I plan to stay and help you and my King. Your plan has got to be better than the whiskered wanker's Greater Good. I would like to see you destroy the whiskered wanker for enslaving me for nearly seven decades,] Fawkes finished that with some agitation.

Harry nodded in agreement; being a phoenix didn't mean he didn't want justice done. That wasn't what being light meant, contrary to the MOB's belief.

Harry replied, "I am honored that you choose to help; I promise you the old goat will get what he deserves. I plan to destroy him little by little, as he watches all his plans for his 'Greater Good' falling apart, but can do nothing about it.

"I am also honored that you think I am worthy to bond with you, but you are also correct that Hedwig would probably have a fit."

"Hey, I am here, you know."

Harry chuckled at his beautiful companion, and continued. "While I cannot predict what he would be willing to do when he gets desperate, I do know a familiar bond would protect you from the old goat. And I might just have the right person for you to bond with; she is a delightful girl and has had a hard life so far. Her experience of Hogwarts until now wasn't really pleasant, and I will rectify that soon. But either way, I think she would be a good companion for you. I will bring her here soon, and you can make the decision of whether to bond with her then. How does that sound, Fawkes?" asked Harry as he stroked both Hedwig and Fawkes' feathers.

Fawkes trilled positively.

"Good, I need to leave now. The time compression will last for 72 inside hours, so when I return, the both of you should be fully grown, now play nice you two."

Both Phoenixes trilled. Harry kissed the phoenixes and Cassie on top of their heads, and left the Room of Requirement.

Miles away in one of the few Potter properties that weren't sealed off during the First Wizarding War, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot plotted his next step.

While he wasn't expecting to be temporarily suspended as the Headmaster, all the other pieces of his chessboard were moving according to his plan. Especially the main pawn, Harry Potter; the boy had turned up just as he expected: beaten, selfless and completely unaware of his inheritance.

He was rather miffed that he still couldn't get rid of that mudblood, Granger. She had escaped the troll and ended up being much closer to the pawn. The incident had created a lot of work for him, as he had to remove all the books that could potentially affect his plan from the library. And just recently, she even managed to narrowly avoid being killed by the Basilisk.

Oh yes, he knew it was a Basilisk. He was Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard since Merlin, of course, he knew it was a Basilisk; he was even aware of who was controlling the Basilisk. While he didn't plant Tom's diary on the youngest Weasley, the situation was surely helping with his plan for the pawn. Who cares if someone might get killed by the Basilisk? It was all for the Greater Good!

Meanwhile, he needed to find a way to deal with the Board of Governors; they were obviously leveraged by Malfoy, and thus it shouldn't take long for him the leverage things back in his favor. He was Albus Dumbledore after all.

Suddenly, his musing was interrupted by a feeling; Albus Dumbledore felt weakened, and he wasn't sure why. He could tell his magical core was fine, so he shook the feeling off, he was sure he would be fine after a good night sleep in this relatively small but still luxurious Potter property.

Unknown to the self-proclaimed 'Leader of Light', that feeling was caused by the severing of his connection with Fawkes. His magical core had been augmented by Fawkes' powerful magic since he enslaved Fawkes until now for about seventy years, and the so-called greatest wizard since Merlin forgot his own lesson: almost all rituals have a price.

In his case, Dumbledore's own magical core had been slowly reducing in size without him realizing it; and every year when Dumbledore re-enslaved Fawkes after a burning day, a bigger proportion of his magic reserve was replaced by Fawkes' magic. Soon, the manipulative fool would start to feel all 112 years of his age.


	5. Jail Break

The moment Harry entered Gryffindor Tower, an obviously furious weasel stomped towards him. Harry didn't even need to use Legilimency to read Ronald's thoughts; he was furious that Harry didn't back him up for the two fights occurred earlier that day, but Harry did use a Legilimency probe to send the weasel away from him before the weasel was able to say a single word.

Harry had sent the red-headed weasel to bother Malfoy again, despite it was nearly curfew. They both knew how to find the Slytherin Dungeon, and Harry was hoping the weasel would start banging on the entrance and suffer the wrath of the Slytherin students as well as Snape. An almost sadistic part of Harry was really enjoying setting his enemies against each other; but really, it was a very useful strategy, a strategy Harry had used and would carry on using for a long time.

Harry acknowledged a few of his house-mates and headed towards the dormitory; he still had much to do that night.

Harry came out from his deep meditation at exactly two o'clock in the morning, and got ready for his midnight activities. His battle suit wasn't ready yet, and despite having perfected his wandless invisibility charm, Harry wasn't one to rely on his magical abilities nor would he rely on magical artefacts. So Harry opted for a black non-descriptive cloak very similar to the one he wore just before he stepped through the Veil; it was made during one of his project periods. The cloak would allow Harry to keep his anonymity, even if the notice-me-not runes failed somehow.

The first stop was Azkaban, as Harry didn't want his godfather to stay in that hell-hole for a minute longer. Harry also didn't want to risk his godfather trying to escape again; just because he was successful in the previous timeline, it didn't mean he could pull it off again with his life intact.

After he activated the privacy wards around his bed, Harry transformed into a six-foot long black wolf. It used to be even bigger; Harry assumed that was because with him returning to his twelve-year-old body, his animagus forms also reverted back to their respective adolescent sizes.

This was one of Harry's most aggressive animagus forms; it was also one of his two animal spirits with shadow elemental abilities. Harry first discovered this form while serving with the Special Air Service (SAS) of the British Army after he got promoted to lead a team of his own. It was rather fitting as he and his team were specialised at operating in the shadows, and hunting their targets behind the enemy lines; just like his form, who was an alpha of the pack, able to stalk his enemies using the shadows.

Harry chose this form for two reasons: one, the Dementors had a natural fear/respect towards shadow elementals, and Harry wasn't about to expose his identity by casting Patronuses; two, it would make Sirius happy that his godson was also a canine animagus.

Azkaban Prison,  
11 May, 1993

Sirius Black curled against a wall in his cell as Padfoot. What was the date? And was the time? Sirius didn't know. He had long ago lost the track of time he had spent in this hell on earth.

Sirius still mourned the death of his best friend James Potter and his wife Lily. He regretted ever trusting Peter which led to his best friend's death; he regretted going after Peter in a blind rage which led to him being set up to be thrown in prison without a trial; but most of all, Sirius regretted not being there for his godson.

Sirius loved Harry as his own; even with all the mischief he got up to, his happiest memory was still being named Harry's godfather. It was that memory which had kept him relatively sane in this hell-hole, but it was also that memory, and knowing that he had let James, Lily and most importantly, his pup down made Sirius feel that he deserved to be punished.

Another Dementor drifted by and Padfoot shivered. For the millionth time, Sirius thanked his friendship with Remus; he was the reason Sirius had become an animagus, which helped him to stave off the worst effects of the Dementors. But still, even as Padfoot, being close to a Dementor was never pleasant.

Just as Padfoot was about to drift off to sleep, a large and clearly well-built black wolf appeared out of nowhere; it surveyed him carefully for a moment, and let out a long howl.

The howl lasted for nearly a minute, sending fear down the spines of the prisoners and the guards alike; even the Dementors tripped over themselves to clear away from the cell.

Padfoot thought he had finally lost his sanity and was backing as far into the corner as he could in fear. That was when the wolf turned its attention to him again, and Padfoot's demeanor changed gradually from fear to curiosity, to recognition and finally, to joy.

It was its eyes that caused Padfoot's change; he would recognize Lily's and Harry's eyes anywhere. Padfoot wasn't sure what was going on, he was just happy to see something familiar in this cold and dark cell he had been living in for Merlin-knows-how-long; he didn't care if those eyes were Lily's or Harry's, he didn't care if he had finally lost it or he had met his maker, all he cared was seeing the emotions in those emerald-coloured eyes that reminded him of home.

Padfoot noticed the wolf had gently put a paw on his shoulder, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on something much warmer and much more comfortable with soothing songs being sung. Immediately Padfoot was put at ease and drifted off to sleep.

Harry was still silently seething as he cared for his godfather. Padfoot was in a worse state than Harry had ever seen him in his past life; it had invoked such rage in him, his HUD had red-lined for a moment. Luckily, his Occlumency was able to stave off his worst impulses, which were to hunt down and maim every single bastard responsible for his godfather's imprisonment; some of his shadow wolf's instincts still took over though as he howled in anguish as a promise to the pain to come.

Harry had Shadow-Walked Padfoot immediately to the Room of Requirement, where his beautiful White Phoenix Hedwig had instantly stopped preening her new feathers and started singing soothing songs for both himself and Padfoot with Fawkes joining in.

Harry had not finished constructing a Sorcerer's Stone of his own yet, but he already had a healing potion made with his own Phoenix tears ready. He gently fed the potent healing potion to the sleeping dog form of Sirius, and then carefully levitated the Grim to a warm bath provided by the Room.

After an hour in time compression, Harry finally tucked a freshly bathed Padfoot in on a fluffy dog bed.

Harry still needed someone to look after Padfoot for when he left for the rest of his missions tonight; while he trusted Cassie completely, she wasn't equipped to cook for and clean after Sirius. Luckily, Harry's next mission would provide the best man suited for that job.

Harry cast a monitoring charm in Padfoot's room, sound-proofed it, and left the Phoenixes still singing soothing songs in the room. He then asked the Room to expand into a much bigger room.

Harry called out, "Elves of House Potter, this is Harry James Potter, report to my location, please."

Instantly, dozens and dozens of house-elves Popped into the Room and started to chant 'Master Harry!' It took two minutes before elves stopped Popping in, and Harry waited for another minute in case any other odd elves got left behind.

Harry observed the elves, his AIs immediately did a head count and displayed the total number of elves on his HUD. 328, there were a lot more elves than he expected.

Flashback

Harry learned of the existence of his family manors after mastering Occlumency in the time compression chamber and regained the memories of his childhood before that fateful Halloween night. But he didn't have time to deal with it as Harry was worried about Hermione.

After hunting down the Weasleys, Harry devoted himself to finishing the Third Wizarding War. It took another two years for Harry to hunt down the new dark lord, Erik Gelinger, who was a high ranking officer in Grindelwald's army and was sent to England to lead a sleeper cell of Magical SS operatives.

Gelinger used Voldemort's Death Eaters as front-runner/cannon fodder for the war, and secretly gathered all that was left of Grindelwald's army, who were much better trained, to do the real work. It was this group, especially the operatives of the Magical SS, who gave Harry the most trouble.

By the time Harry killed Gelinger, it was already late 2007, and Harry finally had some time to look into his own affairs.

The first order of business was to visit his family properties, but the problem was that Harry didn't know where they were, and he still couldn't visit Gringotts in fear of retribution for his break-in nearly a decade ago.

Therefore, Harry called out for any Potter elves, hoping they were able to take him to his family properties.

Harry was surprised by the appearance of nearly a hundred elves; apparently, Harry's mother learned of the abuse many house-elves had suffered and made James acquire as many house-elves as he could so Lily could ensure they were all treated like family.

Harry also learned there were even more Potter elves before, but many had died due to the lack of bond with a master or a mistress for such a long time; the 96 left only survived due their bond to House Potter, the ambient magic in the properties and because they were the youngest; and even then, they were barely hanging on.

After bonding with the elves and being taken to the Potter elves' gravesite, Harry had personally built a monument for all the elves who died serving House Potter.

The elves also explained how they, for some reason, couldn't find him unless he called out to them, so they had tried both 4 Privet Drive and Hogwarts. But both places seemed to have wards specifically designed to prevent house-elves employed by House Potter from getting in; they had only given up after twenty years of trying and failing.

Flashback Ends

Harry was still mourning for Hermione when he built that monument for Potter elves, he didn't pay much attention to how many elves were lost; he was expecting somewhere between fifty to a hundred, definitely not over two hundred as he now realised; those were another 232 lives lost he could blame on the manipulative old bastard.

Harry was initially worried that the ward put in place by the MOB would keep his family elves out, but evidently, he shouldn't be, as the Room of Requirement would grant the elves access as he required.

Harry silently observed his family elves while they got over their excitement on seeing 'Master Harry' again. They were all dressed in uniform with the Potter Family Crest just like he remembered; they all spoke in a clear and correct form of English reminding Harry of the school Lily had set up for the elves on the family ground in Wales; really, Harry shouldn't have expected any less from his brilliant mother.

However, while they carried themselves in a confident and respectable manner, Harry's Occlumency alerted him to the subtle signs indicating the elves' weakened state.

Eventually, Harry raised his right hand, and the elves quieted down immediately. Harry asked, "Is that all of you?"

"Yes, Master Harry," replied the elves in unison.

Harry had learned his lesson after trying and failing to get his elves to call him 'Harry' for decades. So he smiled warmly at the elves and continued his inquiry. "Who is the head elf?"

An elderly looking male elf stepped forward, and answered, "My name is Eddie, I am the Potter Family's head elf, Sir."

Harry knelt down to the little elf's level to address Eddie, which was much harder to do with his increased height. Harry noticed in the corner of his eyes that his first action was already causing the elves to swoon, and it took a considerable amount of his Occlumency for Harry to not roll his eyes; all he wanted to do was to treat his family like, well, family.

"How are you, Eddie?" asked Harry.

"I am good, Master Harry," answered Eddie who was bouncing up and down. "Master Harry is as great as Mistress Lily, always asking us elves how we are."

In the corner of his eyes, Harry noticed all the elves were nodding their heads rapidly in agreement. "Why shouldn't we ask? You are family after all," Harry carried on before the elves got excited again. "I can tell all of you are weakened somewhat, shouldn't mum and dad's magic prevent that?"

"Master Harry knew about Master James and Mistress Lily?" asked Eddie with hope in his eyes; and in his excitable state, he forgot to answer Harry's question.

"Yes, I do," answered Harry. "I only learned that they are still alive yesterday."

"Then I should take Master Harry to Master James and Mistress Lily, so you can revive them!"

Harry shook his head sadly, he really wanted to do just what Eddie had suggested, but he knew it wasn't the right time yet. "Not yet, Eddie. I need to get everything in place before doing that to prevent the Ministry from prosecuting our family for practicing Necromancy." Seeing the elves' disappointed expressions, Harry continued. "It shouldn't take more than two weeks for me to get everything in place. Meanwhile, you haven't answered my question. Why are you all weakened?"

"Our bond with Master James and Mistress Lily kept us grounded for a long time, but their magic is in stasis just like their bodies. We can tell the magic that keeps them alive is from another source, and there was just enough magic to keep Master James, Mistress Lily and the little ones alive, so we tried to draw as little magic as possible from them.

"But the source of that magic suddenly became much stronger yesterday, and the excess is allowing us to recover from nearly eleven years of not enough magic, and we have not finished recovering yet. But with you returning to the family, we should recover in no time."

Hearing Eddie's explanation, Harry made the speculation that the source of magic was likely himself. Harry immediately hugged the little elf, and said in gratitude. "Thank you all for doing everything you could to keep my parents and sisters alive, I am forever in your debt. If anyone of you need anything, please do not hesitate to ask. We haven't lost anyone since mum and dad were put in stasis, have we?"

Eddie answered, "No, we haven't, Master Harry!"

Harry sighed in relief and released Eddie from his hug. "That's good. I would like to get to know the each of you individually sometime in the future, but now I would like to do something for you."

Harry stepped back and called out. "Cassie!"

Cassie immediately appeared in front of her daddy and hugged him tightly. Harry hugged her back before asking her. "Could you bring all the Hogwarts elves here, please? And could you then change the Room for the ritual we talked about?"

"Of course, Daddy!" was Cassie's reply.

Moments later, another 435 house-elves Popped into the Room and the Room changed all around them. Sirius' room was moved to a corner, and there was an observation room Cassie had created for herself and the Founders; they didn't want to miss the opportunity to witness this historical event.

There were runes etched all around the room; most prominently, there was a large rune circle enclosing 766 identical smaller rune circles, and a unique rune circle at the very centre where Harry was standing. Harry asked all of the elves to find a small ritual circle for themselves and stand at the centre of their respective circles.

There was one empty circle left in front of Harry and he called out. "Dobby!"

A small elf wearing a pillowcase appeared in front of Harry who immediately hugged Dobby for all he was worth; tears dropped out from Harry's eyes as he remembered how Dobby sacrificed himself to save him.

A minute later, Harry released a somewhat shocked Dobby and placed him in the center of the empty circle. "I will explain everything to you later, Dobby. For now, could you please stay here for me while I perform a ritual?"

Dobby nodded numbly, but still answered, "Anything for the Great Harry Potter, Sir!"

Harry stepped back into his own circle and started chanting in the High Elven tongue while the elves watched in awe; they couldn't believe they were hearing the ancient and lost language of High Elves.

During his time studying with the High Elves, they had helped Harry to find a way to break the curse that had enslaved the House-Elves; it was one of many things he did in memory of his Hermione.

Harry had found out that the House-Elves were related to the High Elves, and were a race created to serve. They used to be just over four-feet tall with much greater control of their magic before the enslavement, which had also affected their mentality.

While the House-Elves before the enslavement still needed to bond to a magical user, they could choose to break the bond and retreat to a safe haven where they could survive without a bond while looking for a new family to serve. The bond was like a contract between the master or mistress and the elf; it ensured the elves would keep their past and present employer's secrets unless the master or mistress broke the contract by mistreating the elf.

After being freed from their enslavement, Harry found the elves' mentality had changed. They no longer wanted to punish themselves, and they no longer saw themselves as inferior beings, but they still wanted to do a good job serving their family, and they still couldn't stay idle for long.

It was said that almost all rituals have a price. This was the case because most rituals were used to gain something such as power and abilities, thus magic asked payments for these kinds of rituals. However, both the ritual Harry was performing now, and the core unbinding ritual Harry performed earlier were both used to free magic in one sense or another. Therefore, there wasn't any long-term price to be paid, just enough magic to power the ritual.

Harry had been chanting for nearly half an hour as the runes were gradually charged. Suddenly, a very powerful magical backlash washed across the room and powered up every single rune array in the Room of Requirement; Harry had just released another binding on his magical core and used the magical backlash to activate the ritual.

A bright golden dome surrounded each of the 766 house-elves in the room. Another fifteen minutes later, the domes started to fade, leaving behind taller and healthier-looking elves behind.

The elves were inspecting their new bodies in awe; to be fair, it had been nearly two millennia since the house-elves were first enslaved.

It was Dobby who broke out of his daze first and gushed, as he realised his contract with the House of Malfoy was broken. "Oh, I always knew the Great Harry Potter, Sir is the greatest wizard ever. Dobby is free from the bad masters! Dobby is free from the bad masters!" He then rushed forward to hug Harry, which had become slightly harder: he still wasn't tall enough to hug Harry properly, but he was also no longer so short that he could comfortably hug Harry's leg. Harry took pity on the excitable little elf, got on one knee, and gave Dobby a proper hug.

Harry released Dobby but stayed on his knee, and he asked, "Dobby, would you like to become my personal elf?" Harry asked because he had figured out this was what Dobby had wanted in the previous timeline.

Dobby bobbed his head up and down rapidly, and answered, "Yes, Dobby will be the Great Harry Potter's elf! Dobby will be the bestest elf for the Great Harry Potter, Sir!" He then proceeded to try to strangle Harry with a hug, forgetting his new strength.

Harry's years of training allowed him to reflexively tuck his chin in to avoid being choked by Dobby. A small silver flash appeared for a second, signifying the new bond. Dobby instantly looked slightly stronger due to Harry's powerful magic.

Eventually, Dobby released Harry allowing him to speak. "I am going to speak to the rest of the elves now. I will speak to you later, ok?"

"Of course! Master Harry Potter, Sir!" answered Dobby.

Harry chuckled. "Harry would be fine, Dobby. You are my friend. By the way, don't worry about Lucy Malfoy's plan, it has already been dealt with."

Harry stood up and saw all 766 elves had their attention on him with clear awe-struck expressions on their faces. Harry groaned internally, he hoped the elves would not build another giant statue of him like they did in the previous timeline in the safe haven Harry had built for them, but Harry doubted he could stop them.

Harry started speaking and the elves immediately quieted down. "I am sure you have figured out what I just did. The curse that had enslaved the house-elves has been broken. The ritual I performed will allow this 'cure' to spread from one elf to the next just by skin contact; any elf with the 'cure' could free any elf still under enslavement. This cure will stay with you until magic recognizes that all house-elves are free from enslavement.

"There is a copy of the original version of House-Elf Laws in this room, also known to you as the Come and Go Room; it describes how this affects you. Eddie, I will also make a copy for you to put in the school."

"Yes, Master Harry!"

Harry continued, "No one deserves to be treated like slaves, and no one deserves to be abused. So please spread the cure to the other elves, but please don't let anyone other than elves find out it was me who broke the curse. If you find any elves without a family to serve or who want to leave an abusive family, I would be happy for them to join the Potter Family until they find a new family to serve or decide to stay with the Potters permanently.

"I am sorry to say the Safe Haven is now forever lost, but I am creating a new safe haven for any elves who wish to find a new family to serve; the new safe haven should be ready in less than two months.

"Now do any of you have any questions?" asked Harry.

A Potter elf spoke up timidly. "Master Harry, was that the High Elven tongue you were chanting? We though they were lost in time. How come you can speak the noble language?"

Harry recognized her as one of the elves who survived in the previous timeline. "Tippy, right?" asked Harry gently.

Tippy nodded with a slight blush, she was surprised this clearly great wizard knew her by name.

"Yes, that was the High Elven tongue; again, this secret should be kept among the elves. The High Elves still live in their self-imposed exile. I found them and they were the ones who helped me to find the way to break the enslavement curse cast on your race. However, I cannot expose their location to you without their consent."

To Harry's frustration, that information only made the elves to become more awe-struck. But Harry also realized these house-elves would never betray him.

Harry was worried for an instant if he was doing the same thing Dumbledore did to Hagrid, but he reminded himself that the MOB manipulated things so Hagrid and others needed to be rescued in the first place; whereas he only did the rescuing without any ulterior motive, and it was just by chance he got something in return for doing a good deed.

When there were no more questions, Harry sent the now free house-elves back to their work, except for Dobby, Eddie, and Rory, who was the Hogwarts' head elf. Harry knelt down again to speak to the three elves.

"Eddie, could you get Dobby a uniform ready and arrange elf schooling for him? He will be my personal elf from now on," requested Harry.

"Yes, Master Harry!" was Eddie's reply.

"Could you also help Rory design a uniform for the Hogwarts elves? Use the vault mum arranged for Potter elves for now to make the uniforms. I will replenish the vaults when I next visit Gringotts."

"Yes, Master Harry!"

"Thank you, Eddie. Both you and Rory can go now, I will get everything arranged for mum and dad's revival as soon as I can." With that, Rory and Eddie Popped away.

"Dobby, can you look after my godfather for me, please? I just broke him out of Azkaban, he doesn't look too good," asked Harry solemnly; he was still feeling the anguish at seeing Padfoot's condition.

Dobby nodded, "Dobby will look after the Great Master Harry Potter, Sir's dogfather!"

Harry nearly-face palmed; he hoped Dobby's title for him would not get any longer than it was already. "Thank you, Dobby. I will show you to his room."

After showing Dobby to Sirius' room, Harry gave Dobby a list of instructions and left for his next mission.

Harry had only spent a minute in real time caring for his godfather and dealing with the elves; with his godfather in good hands, Harry was now ready to move on to his other missions for the night.

Harry conjured a mannequin, transfigured it to look like Sirius in filthy prisoner robes and added a few animation charms to it; this time staying in his human form, Harry Shadow-Walked the Sirius-mannequin back into his cell, and left the decoy there to delay the news of Sirius' escape. It wouldn't do to draw Dumbledore's attention to Harry yet.

Harry Shifted into the Time Room in the Department of Mysteries at quarter past two. The room was deserted at this time of the night; the objective of Harry's visit was resting on the shelves inside a large glass-fronted case standing against the wall at the far end of the main chamber: the time turners.

In his previous timeline, Harry had never retired as an Unspeakable; in fact, he had taken over as the Head of the Department of Mysteries in the 2050s and had kept that position until he walked through the Veil.

During all that time, Harry had learned many secrets of the Department. For instance, Level Nine of the Ministry of Magic was only the official headquarters of the Department; the real headquarters was only accessible to employees of the Department, and its location was only known to the Head of the Department as well as his two deputies. A charm not unlike the Fidelius Charm was used so that the existence of the Department outside Level Nine of the Ministry of Magic couldn't be told to anyone not working for the Department.

The work they did on Level Nine was still real, mostly to maintain appearance, but also because the other departments in the Ministry of Magic may have required the assistance of the Department of Mysteries from time to time; for instance, the use of the Veil of Death for execution, a more favoured method for execution until Fudge came into office.

The security on Level Nine wasn't as tight; still, the only reason Harry and his friends managed to get in was because of the manipulations on both Dumbledore's and Rookwood's parts; it wouldn't stop a trained wizard/witch though. However, none of the artifacts they had on Level Nine were really dangerous, and each of the artifacts there had a special tracking charm that couldn't be dispelled by any means other than the destruction of said artifact.

However, the substance contained by some of the artifacts could not be tracked, as the magical properties of said substance could react badly with other magic. One of these substances was the sand in the time turners; luckily for Harry, that was all he needed, he knew how to make the rest of the time turner better and more efficient.

Harry transferred a portion of sand from some of the time turners on display into an unbreakable jar he had conjured; the portions were small enough that it wouldn't affect the function of those time turners on display. When Harry saw that he had enough for what he needed, he left the rest of the timer turners alone.

Harry shrunk the jar and stored it in one of his inside pockets. He then Shifted to his next destination.

At half past two, Harry Shifted to a secluded corner in the Department of Magical Education. After making sure there wasn't anyone in the office, Harry set off to search for the records office.

Harry Shadow-Walked into the record office, and summoned the academic records of the past seven decades; they contained more than enough evidence to show the decline in the standards of magical education since the MOB started teaching at Hogwarts.

He spent nearly half an hour making certified copies of the records he needed. These records were supposed to be public in the first place, not locked inside a cabinet; well, Harry would make sure they did find their way to the Daily Prophet, and the MOB would have a lot of fires to put out while Harry was getting his ducks in a row.

When he was done, a simple wave sent all the originals back to where they came from. Harry then Shifted away.

Harry would never invade his friends' privacy; however, he had no problem spying on his enemies. It was called intelligence gathering.

That being said, Harry Shifted into the middle of the Minister's office, and planted two bugs that were directly monitored by one of his AIs in his Mind World; the AI would notify him of anything important.

The bugs were heavily modified from the Extendable Ears using inspirations from the mundane intelligence services, and only Harry had the knowledge at the current time on how to detect them; the decades he had worked with Military Intelligence, Section 5 (MI5) hand-in-hand as an Unspeakable had taught him more than he could imagine.

After making sure the bugs were active and concealed, Harry Shifted back to Hogwarts.

After storing the items he'd acquired from the Ministry in a safe place, Harry left Hogwarts again. One last mission for tonight.

Harry's extensive experience with war had taught him the importance of psychological warfare (PSYOP); now, he was going to use it to make the old goat sweat a little as well as take some revenge for himself. But first, he needed to find the MOB.

Using his knowledge from the previous timeline, Harry knew about the nine Potter properties that had been warded against Potter elves; three of them were located on the British Isles. Harry had realized that the MOB had been using his properties for years while denying him what was rightfully his. Given the cheapest Potter property was much more luxurious than anything owned by the Ancient House of Dumbledore, it wasn't hard for Harry to speculate where the MOB was staying during his temporary, but soon-to-be permanent exile from the magnificent Castle of Hogwarts.

Harry decided to check the property in England first, and bingo; looked like it was his lucky day. Tightening down his Occlumency, Harry prepared for his first confrontation with the man who ruined his life and many others' for centuries.

It was just before four o'clock in the morning, still pitch black outside. In an estate fifty miles north of Cambridge, an old wizard was sleeping under a set of colorful duvets that matched his equally colorful robes, dead to the world; that was until a loud bang broke the peaceful silence surrounding the remote estate.

The old wizard shot up faster than it should have been possible for someone his age, and reached for his wand. Despite presenting himself as a peace-loving grandfatherly person, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore knew he had made his fair share of enemies, and had taken Mad-Eye's teaching of 'Constant Vigilance' to heart.

He didn't know who could breach the impressive number of wards he had set up around this property as well as 'his' bedroom, but he would shoot first and ask questions later.

Well, that was Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the Greatest Wizard since Merlin's intent; but one did not always get what he wanted: for the moment his hand touched his faithful Elder Wand, to the old goat's shock, the Deathstick flew away from him into the hand of a figure in the room, a figure the so-called 'Greatest Wizard since Merlin' just noticed.

The figure's appearance came into focus without the aid of his glasses, something the figure took note of discreetly. The old goat was shocked to the core by the figure's appearance, he forgot to reach for his backup wand; in fact, he forgot to speak completely as the color drained from his face.

The figure made a show of observing the room before a young feminine voice came out. "After all these years, Albus, you are still as selfish as I remember."

After a moment silence, the figure continued, "But even I didn't know you could sink so low, manipulating a young boy to be abused while you are enjoying what is rightfully his, you disgust me."

The old goat finally found his voice. "Ariana?"

The brown eyes of the girl known as Ariana glared at him with the utmost loathing. "Glad to see you still remember the sister YOU killed."

The old wizard cringed at that, and refuted venomously, "No, no, no, it was Gellert, it wasn't me. It was his spell that killed you."

To Dumbledore's surprise, Ariana started laughing, and she didn't stop for a minute. "Oh, Albus. Was that what you kept telling yourself? That wasn't the story you told the others; well, not that you told many others in the first place. So I guess the version 'I-don't-know-which-one-of-us-fired-the-killing-spell' is to preach your 'forgive-and-forget' agenda.

"You were more delusional than I thought. IT WAS YOU, ALBUS WULFRIC DUMBLEDORE!" Ariana suddenly raised her voice, making Dumbledore shuffle back in fear. "IT WAS YOU, who harboured unreturned romantic feelings towards Gellert; IT WAS YOU, who was jealous that Gellert showed more interest in me than your Greater Good; IT WAS YOU, who started firing curses at us in a jealous rage; IT WAS YOU, who through pure luck, managed to get a spell through Gellert's and Abe's shields and KILLED ME; and IT WAS YOU, who modified Abe's memory to make him believe that he was partially responsible for my death."

Seeing the old goat wasn't going to respond, Ariana continued, "I guess you lied to yourself so often to ease your own conscience that you started believing in your own lies. I wonder how often you did that for your so-called Greater Good.

"Give it up, Albus. Confess to your crimes. Or I will haunt you for the rest of your short and miserable life."

With that said, Ariana stepped back and slowly faded into the shadows; before she faded completely, she waved the Elder Wand at the old goat, and said, "Oh, Death wanted me to keep this as a souvenir."

When Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore came out from his shock, he realised he had lost his faithful Elder Wand. He slumped back down to the bed, and started to worry about his Greater Good. Twiddling with his original wand, the old wizard was lost at what to do; his own wand just didn't feel the same after using the Deathstick for so long. How am I supposed to conquer the world for the Greater Good now?

Ariana came out of a shadow in the Room of Requirement with a satisfied grin on her face. A moment later, her glamour was dropped to reveal the features of a well-built Harry Potter.

The Grand Battle Mage had achieved much in this mission: he had acquired the Elder Wand, which would be stored in a safe location; he had planted a Trojan horse in the old goat's mind during his panicked state; he had learned the old goat didn't need his glasses to see, which meant the glasses were most likely charmed to function like Moody's magical eye; and finally, he had rattled the old goat's cage enough to affect his mind-set – the old goat would likely become more paranoid and start to second guess his every move, slowing himself down further as Harry would create more fires for him to put out.

But Harry knew from staying behind in the Shadow Realm, passively reading the old goat's mind, the MOB wasn't anywhere near giving up his Greater Good. Well, 'Ariana' would be happy to visit her least favorite brother every now and then.

Harry had no idea what really happened in that duel; maybe one day he would find out from Grindelwald. While he wouldn't lie to the public, despite concealing a lot of the truth, Harry had no problem using lies to mess with the old goat's mind. And as the saying went, 'seeing is believing'; Harry had tasked one of his AIs to construct a detailed scenario where Ariana was killed by the old goat in a jealous rage.

Having safely stored the Deathstick, Harry started his daily three-hour mental and physical exercises, as he firmly believed that there would always be room for improvement. He would visit Hermione right after that; it had been a while in his perspective since he last visited her.

It took only a fraction of a minute in real time for Harry to complete his daily exercises in the Room of Requirement. He was now setting up privacy wards around Hermione's bed, still disguised in his malnourished body with glasses.

This was the first time he saw Hermione since his first transformation to the Royal Phoenix in this life, thus this was the first time he saw her with a natural mage sight gifted by his Royal Phoenix. Harry used it to check over Hermione, and was relieved that the only foreign magic on her was from the Basilisk's gaze and a couple of memory charms with Dumbledore's magic signature; however, it looked like neither the MOB nor the red-headed weasel had gotten around to potion her yet. Harry knew the memory charms would dissolve themselves as Hermione's Occlumency training progressed.

Getting comfortable on a conjured chair, Harry took hold of one of Hermione's petrified hands. He spoke softly, "Hey, Hermione. How are you? How is your Occlumency training coming along? I missed you so much and I can't wait to hear your voice again."

After a moment of silence, Harry continued, "I have decided to speed up the timetable on waking you up to tomorrow at the latest. I have arranged to purchase the necessary ingredients, and have a certified Potion Master to brew the draughts for everyone."

Harry didn't let on that he was the certified Potion Master; it was one of the many Masteries he had acquired during his four centuries of life. However, Potions was still one of his least favorite subjects. He would have to get re-certified again sometime.

"There are a couple reasons for this new plan, the main one being that I missed you terribly and I can't wait to see your smile again; I will explain the second reason when you wake up.

"I am sure you already have a long list of questions you want to ask me, and you most likely will have more when you wake up, but please only ask me when we find somewhere private. I would like to apologize that I won't be able to answer all of your questions until you are able to protect my secrets, but I refuse to ever to lie to you. So please bear with me, and trust me that I will tell you everything as soon as it is safe to do so."

After a moment of silence, Harry got up and kissed her gently on the forehead. He whispered, "I love you, my beautiful bookworm."


	6. Wards

Harry headed towards the central ward room using the shadows as he thought about his progress since he came back to his twelve-year-old body. His overall plan was simple yet complicated at the same time.

Harry had retrained himself first, so that if push came to shove, Harry could confront the MOB directly, and win. Harry then worked on cutting off the MOB's information network, so that the MOB wouldn't learn he was losing control of him in the first place.

But Harry knew the MOB would eventually learn that he had lost control of his main pawn, namely Harry himself; the MOB would then target those he cared about, in order to regain said control. It was why Harry had stayed away from his girls other than Hermione, whom Dumbledore already knew Harry cared about. After all, the bastard couldn't target them if he didn't know Harry cared about them.

The other reason Harry had stayed away from the other girls so far was that he knew the MOB would see him initiating contacts with Slytherins as a sign of losing control of him, given that Ronald was given the mission to isolate him from anyone other than himself, and Daphne could inform him of his rightful inheritance.

So Harry had decided that only when he was sure he could control the information going back to the MOB, would he start to contact the girls. He would then provide the girls with the necessary political and legal protection as well as teach them how to physically protect themselves. This way, when the MOB eventually did learn of those close to his heart, they would no longer be his weakness, but his strength.

Messing with the MOB's mind and creating trouble for him would help both in the destruction of the old goat as well as keeping his attention away from Harry himself. If everything went according to Harry's plan, the MOB would only learn of his loss of control of Harry when Harry wanted him to, which was when the old goat was already politically and publicly destroyed, charged with multiple crimes, as Harry delivered the final blow.

It had been nearly half a year in Harry's perspective since he came back, and regrettably, he had barely contacted any of his girls; he had missed them all terribly. Oh, how he wished to start developing his relationships with them right away, but Harry had learned to have patience; it was something he had to do in his long life of battles during his previous timeline.

Besides, it was nearly four centuries in his perspective since he had lost Hermione and Luna; two and a half in Susan's case; nearly three centuries in cases of Daphne, Astoria, and Tracy; Padma was lost before either of them knew she was lost due to the MOB's meddling. So what was six months compared to all that if his patience would grant him an eternity with his girls?

And now, he was at the last step of his plan before he could start contacting the rest of his girls. After taking control of the castle's wards, Cassie would be able to help him control any outgoing information regarding himself.

At precisely five o'clock, Harry arrived at the central wardroom of the castle. The wardroom was located on the lowest level of the castle, excluding the Chamber of Secrets; it would only reveal its entrance to the Headmaster and any heir of the Founders. The entrance could recognize the current Headmaster by magic or the heir by the Headship ring and thus allow his or her entry.

As Harry entered the wardroom, he could literally feel the anticipation from Cassie.

Inside the wardroom, there were a series of ward stones scattered around the floor; the Headmasters could adjust the castle's ward by modifying the ward stones, or even adding additional ward stones.

There was also a blue crystal-like stone supported by a silver pedestal in the very center of the room, which Harry knew was the main ward stone. Harry referred to it as the Heartstone, because that was where Cassie's soul and the Founders' essences were housed.

The pedestal actually went much deeper into the ground and was made completely from Goblin's silver; thus it was almost indestructible. It was also hollow in the center, which allowed the network of ley lines to feed raw magic into the Heartstone; Harry knew that if it wasn't for the Deathstick, Dumbledore, even as powerful as he was, would have never been able to cut off the connection between the Heartstone and the ley lines.

The Founders had added so much protection to the Heartstone that even the Headmaster couldn't access it. A Founder's heir wearing a Headship ring could partially access the Heartstone, and the Marauder's Map was made using that partial access; full access was only granted when the heir or heirs present could claim the majority of Hogwarts and its surrounding grounds.

If Harry only had Gryffindor's and Slytherin's Headship rings, Harry wouldn't be granted full access; but given he also had Ravenclaw's heir ring, the ward stone deemed Harry the majority owner of Hogwarts, and granted him full access.

Harry immediately felt the castle. With the aid of his AIs, a 3D hologram showing every inch of the castle was constructed in his Mind World. He could now sense every ward, every charm, and every piece of active or passive magic that existed within the limits of the Heartstone, which included the castle and its surrounding grounds; if he wished, he could also find any living soul within that limit, tell what they were doing and sense their intentions.

"Hello, Daddy! So you finally took control of my wards!" Harry heard a cheerful voice, immediately followed by Cassie manifesting in front of him. "Now I will be able to talk to you using our mental link anytime!"

"Great, I will never get a moment of peace from now on with your incessant chatting in my head all the time!" Harry put on a show of mock fear, which only caused Cassie to giggle.

She asked him in her innocent little girl's voice, still using their newly-established mental link. "Do you not want to hear my voice all the time, Daddy?" Cassie finished with a pout.

Harry sighed in resignation, he was never going to win a teasing-contest against Cassie, and one would think with seventy years of experience with her in the future, he would have learned that fact by then.

Seeing her Daddy sighing in not a little frustration, Cassie giggled. She enveloped him in a big hug and continued what she wanted to say out aloud, "You are now in full control of every ward in the castle, the old goat can't do anything to me anymore!"

Harry hugged her back tightly and whispered, "Make that no one would do anything to you anymore! I will make sure of that. No one hurts my princess!"

"Thank you, Daddy!" Cassie gushed.

Harry eventually released Cassie and started giving Cassie instruction as they planned; despite being free and all, Cassie was still bound by the Founders' will and still required Harry's instructions to make the changes. Harry made it up to Cassie by always discussing things with her before giving his instructions.

"Let the old goat think he still has the same control of the wards, and let him sense what he expects to sense. There are a number of monitoring charms around the castle tied to him; keep them active for now, but don't let them report anything out of place."

Cassie happily nodded, and Harry felt her take care of her connection to the old goat. Harry continued, "Good job, my princess. Now that is done, we can make some real changes without the old goat knowing. Can you get those seven crystals you helped me make, please?"

"Sure, Daddy!" Cassie answered before disappearing.

When she came back a minute later, Harry was already busy working with the rest of the wards, so Cassie stayed silent to observe her daddy; she loved watching her daddy concentrate and hard at work: his green eyes were blazing with determination, his movement was graceful and confident, not to mention how he was easy on the eyes, especially now that he had dropped his glamour. Just because she thought of Harry as her daddy didn't mean Cassie didn't appreciate the view.

Although Harry could now activate and deactivate any existing ward using his mind link with Cassie, he still needed to permanently remove or add a new ward manually.

Each past Headmaster had added their own wards on top of the existing wards, and thus many wards were redundant. For instance, there were nineteen separate Anti-Apparition wards cast by seventeen different Headmasters; the repetitive wards didn't make it harder for someone to Apparate, they just drew excess magic from Cassie's core which could be used for something else.

As he already had a copy of every unique ward from his last timeline, Harry permanently removed any ward or ward stone not placed by the Founders. This left only four ward stones behind in addition to the Heartstone, one of which controlled all of the suits of armor.

Harry then marked seven points on the ground around the pedestal; the points would form a regular heptagon if they were connected together.

Harry called for the Elder Wand, which he had blood bonded to him, from its hiding place; the Deathstick appeared in his right hand in an instant. His holly-and-phoenix wand wouldn't be able to survive the amount of magic he was about to cast. Seven short motions later, a seemingly bottomless hole appeared on each of the seven points Harry had marked.

Harry then drew out a knife he made that could mark Goblin's silver and started using the knife to carve out runes on the stem of the pedestal. Harry cast a few charms on the Heartstone when he finished carving; only then did he look up and motioned Cassie for the crystals he asked for.

Cassie was watching her daddy working work with fascination and immediately handed the crystals to Harry.

The surface of each crystal was covered with a unique set of rune arrays; each crystal was attached to a three-meter-long hollowed cylinder which also had a unique set of rune arrays etched on the surface. The cylinder was made from a synthetic material of Harry's own invention with enchantments modified from those used on Goblin's silver, but the details were a story for another day.

Harry smiled in thanks but noticed Cassie was pouting slightly. "What's wrong, Princess?"

Cassie's pout became more prominent and she whined in a way that particularly suited her current form, "You just carved another rune array I don't understand, cast a charm or a number of charms on the Heartstone I couldn't recognize as all of your spell-work was non-verbal with barely any wand movement, and you still haven't explained what some of the runes on the crystals, not to mention the runes on those thrice-damned hollowed cylinders are for. And these bottomless holes, what are they for? I don't understand!"

Cassie sighed in not a little frustration. She had helped Harry carve most of the runes on the crystals as well as watched him enchant the crystals; Harry had explained almost everything he did, but he was very tight-lipped about the functions of some of the rune arrays and enchantments.

Harry chuckled at his daughter's antics and gathered her in his strong arms after placing the crystals down on the ground. Cassie immediately relaxed against him.

"Aww! My poor princess," Harry cooed to his daughter, who wanted to punch Harry in mock rage, but she was too comfortable to move. "It's a surprise present I prepared for you. I wanted to surprise you this once, as it would be much harder to surprise you after I key you into my Mind World as soon as our work is done here."

Cassie had a hard time suppressing her grin; she had such a wonderful daddy. She was also looking forward to accessing her daddy's Mind World, especially the library; despite disabling the active defenses temporarily for her in the Room of Requirement, Cassie was still having trouble navigating her way to Ravenclaw's Castle in Harry's Mind World on her own.

Cassie looked up at her daddy with her bright green eyes and gave him a big smile. "Thank you, Daddy!" Before Harry could react, Cassie put on her puppy dog eyes in the blink of an eye, complete with tremoring bottom lip; she pleaded, "But I still want to know, please, please explain to me, Daddy!"

There wasn't anything Harry could do except to sigh in defeat, "Alright, alright. Put those eyes away, they are going to be the death of me one day. I will explain everything to you while we work, OK?"

Cassie immediately jumped up and wrapped around Harry with her arms and legs. "Daddy is the best!" She then climbed down and looked at Harry expectantly.

Harry picked up a crystal and motioned for Cassie to copy his actions with another crystal.

"In the last timeline, I strengthened your magical core enough that you could roam freely anywhere within the ward boundary, not just in the magic concentrated areas of the castle like the Room of Requirement and this room. I am doing it again, but with some upgrades."

Cassie was bouncing up and down as she listened to her daddy's explanation. While she could always sense everywhere in the Castle, it would be so much fun if she could run around freely on the Castle's grounds. Maybe she could go flying outside with her daddy.

"As you know the ley lines are metaphysical; these holes might seem bottomless, but they lead directly to the metaphysical plane of the ley lines. You can see that the diameter of each hole is the same as that of these cylinders."

Cassie nodded as realizations dawned on her; it should have been obvious. With that said, Harry planted a crystal; its cylinder disappeared completely into a hole. Cassie did the same with another crystal.

"There is a rune array on the inside surface of each of the hollowed cylinders; they were configured so each cylinder would draw raw magic from three different ley lines. Another rune array was etched on the inside to prevent any tampering with the connections."

By now, all seven crystals were planted. Harry approached the Heartstone, drew his knife again and made a cut on his right index finger.

"We placed different wards on the crystals together, I am guessing you assumed the crystals are just some special ward stones?"

Cassie remained silent but nodded in agreement.

"Well, you were partially right. They were modified from the magical batteries used to power the time compression chamber in the Department of Mysteries. You should be proud of these, as we had designed these together in the future; these crystals can anchor wards, store magic and house a magical core. These properties combined together gave us a ward stone that could house a magical core with a functional magical reserve." Harry had just finished tracing the runes he carved on the pedestal using his blood.

Cassie watched in fascination as the originally white semi-opaque crystals started lighting up, but each with different colors.

"As you can see, the magical core in each of these crystals are already charging, albeit very slowly. We are going to speed up the process by releasing another layer of binding on my magical core, just like we did when we first met in your perspective.

"But that isn't the interesting part; the interesting part is that all seven of these magical cores will fuse with the magical core in the Heartstone." Harry finished his sentence while pointing at the stone housing Cassie's soul.

Cassie was shocked and looked at Harry with a wide-eyed expression. Eventually, she recovered her wit and said, "But, Daddy, given what you had shown me about those magical batteries in the Department of Mysteries, and the size of these crystals, each of these crystals could house a magical core nearly half the size of my current core!"

Harry chuckled at Cassie's expression and answered and a teasing fashion. "Actually, with the way we redesigned the molecular lattice structure to increase efficiency and the shrinking charm we applied to the crystals after we finished carving the runes, the capacity of an individual crystal should be much bigger.

"However given how a magical core stores magic differently in a less efficient manner and don't forget we are sharing the capacity of each crystal between a core and a reserve; in addition, I had configured the crystals to only charge to two-thirds of their capacity leaving a third empty for emergencies. So only a third of the total capacity of each crystal would be used to house the magical core, which still should be about the size equal to your current core. But regardless, so what?" Harry asked almost too nonchalantly, knowing it would probably frustrate Cassie somewhat.

"So what! What do you mean so what? With a core that size, I have enough power to protect the entire Hogsmeade Village and still leave enough for me to manifest in said village!" Cassie exclaimed in exasperation, she didn't understand why her daddy wouldn't realize the ramifications of his changes. Then she saw Harry's mouth curling up a bit to form a smile, and his eyes seemed to sparkle with happiness.

"Unless that was exactly what you had in mind!" Cassie whispered when she realized this was exactly what her daddy had in mind; her expression started to switch from exasperation to excitement. She saw her daddy's smile got even bigger, his eyes full of love and pride at making his daughter happy; Cassie found herself couldn't be happier nor could she love her daddy more if she tried.

Cassie squealed and launched herself at her daddy, who caught her with his now much sturdier frame. She buried her face in her Daddy's chest to conceal the happy tears threatening to pour out.

Harry felt another piece of his soul being healed as he watched how happy he had made his daughter; however, he had one more surprise for Cassie.

When Cassie finally climbed off him, Harry saw a grin threatening to split Cassie's face into halves, and that made him happy. Mentally making sure the wardroom was sealed, Harry started to draw the runes for the core unbinding ritual using Transfiguration. As this was happening, Cassie asked him a question Harry had thought she had forgotten in her excitement.

"Daddy, could you explain to me what kind of emergencies you were preparing for to leave a third of each crystal uncharged?"

By now Harry had finished transfiguring the ritual circle and he turned to Cassie. "Tell me, Cassie, do you know what a nuclear weapon is?"

Cassie being the smart girl she was, immediately guessed the direction this conversation was heading, but she still didn't have enough knowledge regarding this matter. "I have only heard some first generations talking about it, including your mum. All I have gathered definitively so far is that it can cause devastation beyond any witch or wizard's imagination."

Harry nodded and decided that was all she needed to know for now. "That is good enough for now, but please bring up the subject again when all the girls are gathered together; the existence of weapons of this type is one of the key reasons that I need to do what I am planning to do. And it is one of those situations where I need all the help I can get.

"In a really short version, it is a weapon that could destroy a big city in the blink of an eye. I found out the intelligence agencies around the world were not as ignorant about the magical world as the Wizarding World believed, and I won't be able to disable these weapons for a while yet; thus I need to make sure you, my beloved daughter, are protected in case one of those bombs was dropped on the castle.

"I developed a way to convert heat generated by radiation as well as said radiation to magic, but the magic still needed to go somewhere, and that is why I wanted such a large proportion of the crystals uncharged. I still need to place some wards around the grounds for the conversion, which I planned to do as I upgrade the wards around the castle in the next few weeks before the term ends.

"When I finish doing that, you should be able to take ten direct hits from such weapons without any damage to the Castle and its surrounding grounds, but you would need a day or so to leech off the excess magic. I am still working on the solution counter the unlikely event where more than ten nuclear bombs were dropped on Hogwarts.

"And if that does occur before I am ready, I would just have to do what I did in my previous timeline to stop the Third World War, which was going back in time to tamper with all the bombs in existence. I would rather not do that now, as that would mean to go back into the Cold War to do the tampering, and I might actually trigger the Third World War; also, I would have physically aged to my prime by the time I came back, and I don't want to spend a decade with a glamour on."

Cassie nodded in understanding as she contemplated everything Harry told her and she realized that her daddy must have experienced the aftermath of one of those nuclear weapons before; she now had a new appreciation of what her daddy had been through and why her daddy always seemed to be preparing for things.

"Come on, let's get this ritual over with, I have another surprise for you!" Harry said joyfully, trying to return his daughter to her previous excited state.

Cassie came out of her thoughts and saw her daddy was already charging the runes, and she braced herself to help her daddy redirect the magical backlash. She knew this one would be even bigger than the previous three backlashes combined, as a bigger portion of her daddy's magic would be released.

A bright flash later, Harry stood up from where the center of the ritual circle was; the runes had already disappeared as Harry had only used a temporary transfiguration spell.

Both Harry's and Cassie's eyes were drawn to the crystals surrounding the Heartstone. Visible golden lines of magic connected each crystal to their neighboring crystals and the Heartstone, forming a heptagonal pyramid with the Heartstone as the apex. Each of the seven crystals themselves was shining brightly in different colors, pulsing in unison, not unlike heartbeats.

Cassie was already feeling the power coursing through her and watched the crystals, now parts of her magical core, pulsing in fascination. "Why are they in different colors, Daddy?" asked Cassie absentmindedly.

"That my dear princess, is what the rest of the runes and enchantments are for," answered Harry cryptically.

Cassie retorted, "What, to make different colored crystals? I thought you were supposed to be old!"

Harry glared at Cassie in indignation, causing the girl to giggle and blow a raspberry at her daddy.

Harry thought it was unfair for someone to be so cute, and conceded to carry on his explanation. "You saw me draw the blood runes on the pedestal; I did similar things to the cylinders of different crystals. Basically, I opened a connection between our magical cores in a way similar to that of a familiar bond; however, I did it in such a way that a tiny fraction of my elemental magic was donated to your magical core; the color of each crystal represents the element you could now control. I am sure this would be handy in the future; hint, pranking Snape."

Cassie's expression was getting brighter by the moment as she listened to her daddy's explanation, but she wasn't prepared for her daddy's next statement.

Seeing Cassie's happy expression let Harry know he had done the right thing, so he continued, "But that is just a side benefit. The real benefit is that now our magical cores are connected, and given your physical form is a magical construct, you could now manifest anywhere within two hundred meters of my location, regardless of where I would be at that time. I plan to take you traveling around the world, so you could see its beauty through your own eyes."

Cassie didn't know what to say, so she just wrapped herself around her daddy as tightly as she could and cried in happiness. Having been stuck in the castle for a millennium, Cassie never imagined she would get to see the rest of the world.

Freedom was something she craved but had buried so deep in her psyche she had forgotten she wanted it. That was until her Daddy gave her this wonderful surprise present; sure, it wasn't absolute freedom, but it was more than Cassie had ever hoped for.

In his previous timeline, Harry had seen how Cassie had always been fascinated by the stories of his travels; he was glad he was perceptive enough to correctly assume what his princess had always wanted: to see the world. Now, he was finally able to give that to Cassie; he felt like the proudest father in the world to make his little girl's dream come true.

Harry checked the time using his Occlumency when Cassie had finally calmed down and released her death grip on him. It was seven o'clock already, which meant there was only half an hour left until breakfast; it would be for the best if he could get back to the dorm before that.

"Come on, Cassie. Let's finish configuring your wards so I can get back to my bed before people start to notice I am missing," said Harry gently.

"First, castle perimeters. Turn all functioning security wards to maximum. Monitor and control the entry and exit of anyone and anything through the perimeter; stop and report any attempted entry by anyone who is not invited directly to me and Professor McGonagall; confiscate any item entering through the perimeter you deem dangerous and store the item under stasis for evidence as well as record the item's sender and its intended recipient.

"Until the time I finish remarking your ward boundaries to cover the entirety of Hogsmeade Village, all secret pathways are closed; I will let you know when I finish that particular project.

"Next, the well-being of the residents. Turn on the full functionality of the suits of armor, and have ten extra moved to the Slytherin Common Room for protection against unwanted sexual advances; I will not have my castle become a training ground for rapists. You are to intervene directly if the suits of armor are not persuasive enough. I will work on creating more suits next year.

"Now that you can manifest anywhere within the castle, you are also authorized to intervene directly if anyone was to be harmed. Wait a minute, scratch that, make that anyone other than Ronald Weasley, Draco Malfoy and his cronies; they need to have a taste of their own medicine," said Harry thoughtfully, and he smirked, "Besides, it's quite amusing to watch them beating each other up not knowing why they were doing it."

Pure of heart he may have been, Harry could still be particularly vindictive when it came to the red-headed weasel; he would not forget his role in the attempted murder of his Hermione in their first year and the actual murder of his Hermione in his previous timeline.

"Back on topic, for anyone else, shield the victim from any curses and transport him or her directly to Madam Pomfrey if needed; disarm and stun the offender; again, alert both Professor McGonagall and myself; I will then contact the DMLE if needed and the professors have not already done so.

"Let's try our best to prevent the need for anyone to be sent to the hospital, but we both know that we can't do anything without any evidence; so use your passive telepathy to monitor for any harmful intentions and alert me and the closest professor available; hopefully this way, we can catch any offenders in the act without anyone being seriously harmed.

"Stay invisible to the rest of Hogwarts for now; I will make an announcement at the Leaving Feast to introduce you and the Founders as well as to give everyone a fair warning. From the next term on, you will be authorized to do more: up to castration for any sexual offenders. We will work out the details later once I have a discussion with the girls. Speaking of sexual offenders, can you provide me a list of all those who have committed or tried to commit sexual assault in the past fifty years and the Pensieve memories of the events for evidence?"

Cassie nodded affirmatively.

Harry's expression hardened and he growled, "Good, it's time for those sick bastards to learn that their actions have consequences."

Cassie again nodded, this time in agreement. She knew what happened in the last timeline and she agreed with her daddy's firm stance against these foul acts; Cassie was glad that this time Harry would help her to spare those girls those horrifying experiences.

Harry's expression returned to normal. He said gently, "Now that we have taken care of the protection of the Castle and its residents, let's work on information control.

"I have permanently disabled anything cast by the old goat other than those that could alert him to the change. But you are now in control of the Castle, so you can now control what information goes through his monitoring charms, can't you?"

At Cassie's affirmative nod, Harry continued, "Good. I don't want to invade other students' privacy, but we are at a critical time taking the old goat down. I have configured your ward so that even communication mirrors could be intercepted. I want you to scan any outgoing message for any reference to me; if it looks like someone was reporting about me to anyone, intercept the message, and I will check it personally and decide what to do.

"Check carefully especially for anything sent by the Weasleys and Snape, but don't get too fixated on them; I might be paranoid, but knowing what I do know about the manipulative old goat, there will be someone else observing me from afar reporting to him, someone unexpected. That's what I would do if I was to use human intelligence for information gathering."

Cassie nodded contemplatively; her daddy was nothing if not thorough and she wondered what else had her daddy experienced in his previous life to make him this paranoid.

"Speaking of Snape, like I promised you, you can prank him however you want, especially to keep him away from any of my girls. I am going to establish my contacts with them starting today, and I don't want the greasy bat mind-raping them for information. In fact, I want you to prevent him from going anywhere except for his room and his fifth and seventh-year classes."

"Sure, Daddy! This will be fun!" Cassie had a certain gleam in her eyes Harry wasn't sure if he should be excited or terrified about.

"Could you also check if any elf still bonded to Dumbledore is left in the castle?" asked Harry. He wasn't quite sure what to do yet if there was still an elf spying on him for the old goat; he knew very well how the old goat could inspire some fierce blind loyalty using his grandfatherly demeanor. Harry had already configured the ward so that only Hogwarts elves, Potter elves, and unbonded elves could enter or exit Hogwarts freely; he hoped there wouldn't be any elves trapped in Hogwarts.

Harry wasn't worried about any of Dumbledore's elves trying to enter though; the old goat would be too busy contemplating about his encounter with "Ariana" to deal with trivial matters as why his elf suddenly couldn't enter the ward, and he just might chalk that up to the physical changes of the now free elves.

Harry relaxed when Cassie reported to him that there was only one elf who used to spy for the old goat left in the castle but was now bonded to the castle instead of the old goat.

"Good. Last thing regarding information: now that the mail redirection ward on me is gone, there will be a lot more mail arriving for me than usual; my sudden increase in the number of letters received could raise a few eyebrows. So, redirect them all to the Room of Requirement, and I will answer them all privately.

Cassie nodded affirmatively, indicating she was done. Harry smiled proudly at his daughter and hugged her tightly. "Well done, my princess. As you well know, I still have a lot to do around the castle and the grounds to finish upgrading your defenses. I will let you know of my progress. I will require the help of Hogwarts elves though."

Cassie nodded affirmatively, "Thank you, Daddy! For doing this for me. I saw most of the plans you made for my defenses; they are quite scary! The castle will be a fortress by the time you are done; I am sure nothing short of an army could get anywhere near me." Cassie hugged her daddy tightly and appreciatively. "And I am really looking forward to traveling to the world with you!"

Harry just smiled. It would take more than an army to get anywhere near the castle; when he finished, the castle would be able to defend itself against the full capability of the entire US armed forces in the 2090s and deal with all the existing warheads, approximately 100,000 of them, dropped directly on top of the castle.

So unless there was an alien invasion coming, Cassie would be safe no matter what; but Harry would find a way to deal with that potential as well in the future. He still had quite some time to deal with that; in his previous timeline, humans only got their first extra-terrestrial contact at the end of the twenty-first century.

"Believe me, Cassie, I am looking forward to traveling with you, too. I am thinking of taking you, my parents, the girls and their parents to America sometime this summer, but we can finish that discussion later. Now let me key you into my Mind World, so I can get back to the dorm."

Cassie couldn't believe her daddy just teased her like that; she would have pestered him for more detail if she wasn't so anxious to see her daddy's library in his Mind World.

Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts Castle

11th May, 1993

Harry Shifted back to his still-warded bed right after he keyed Cassie into his Mind World. He could feel Cassie roaming around the library in the Ravenclaw Castle happily and Harry couldn't be happier to be secure in the knowledge that he had made his daughter happy.

Having had a shower, Harry decided to make his way to breakfast. That was when he saw the rat, Peter Pettigrew. Using his new mental link to Cassie, Harry saw that the weasel had somehow landed in the Hospital Wing again after he sent him to the Slytherin Dungeon; he made a snap decision. Harry quickly stunned the animagus form of Peter Pettigrew, put him under a stasis charm and sent him to a safe place.

It looked like he needed to reconstruct the letter he'd prepared for Amelia Bones; he would do that after breakfast as he was rather looking forward to starting to meet his girls that day. He would approach Luna first, as Harry wanted to introduce the delightful, if not a little strange, girl to a friend she could rely on.


	7. Luna

Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle

11th May, 1993

When he arrived at the Great Hall, Harry noted it was still relatively empty; it was as expected as breakfast had only started fifteen minutes before. Harry immediately spotted the little lithe girl with dirty blonde hair sitting alone at the Ravenclaw table.

In his previous timeline, Harry had only realised his feelings for the strange blonde girl after he learned Occlumency from Croaker; by then Luna had already committed suicide because of all that she had suffered through while being held captive by those rabid animals in Malfoy Manor. Harry never had the chance to let Luna know how much she was loved. This time, it would be different, Harry promised himself.

Cassie had informed him that the elves had returned all her stolen items, and were constantly monitoring for any harmful pranks directed at Luna. However, Harry had only returned for less than two days in real time, and he wasn't sure to what extent the Ravenclaws had bullied Luna, so he decided to use his mage sight to check her over for any injuries as he approached her.

Harry had detected a number of old injuries which thankfully had already fully healed and he was relieved that she was physically healthy; he would still go over the record to find out anyone who had previously bullied Luna and make sure they understood that their actions have consequences.

"Hi, I'm Harry. Do you mind if I sit next to you?" asked Harry gently.

Luna looked up in surprise and she regarded Harry with her spaced-out grey eyes for a moment.

Luna Lovegood had not had a good time since she came to Hogwarts. No one in her house wanted to be friends with her, and she was teased and bullied constantly for her strange behaviour with the professors doing nothing to stop it. Therefore, it was quite a surprise for her when the famous Harry Potter approached her.

Like her childhood best friend, Ginny, who sadly wasn't talking to her this year, Luna grew up hearing the stories of the Boy-Who-Lived; but unlike Ginny, she wasn't obsessive and knew those stories were just that, stories. That didn't stop her wanting to meet and get to know the real Harry Potter though.

When she arrived at Hogwarts, she could instantly tell that Harry Potter was nothing like anything she expected. He was timid and nice, but hidden behind that, Luna could tell Harry had a certain strength within him that was unbreakable. When the attacks had started and people started to foolishly blame their hero for the attacks, Luna had vehemently defended Harry in her house, which had fallen on deaf ears and made herself a bigger target.

She also noticed that there were many strange creatures, many of which even she couldn't identify, that had made themselves at home around Harry; one particular species was clearly evil and feeding off from Harry's magic, and some others were clearly restricting Harry's enormous magical core.

When she looked up to see Harry right then, there were many things about him were different: for instance, many creatures were no long congregated around him, but there was a new species surrounding him hiding his true appearance. She decided to spend some time later to decipher all these strange changes; Luna did wonder if these sudden changes and her possessions miraculously reappearing around the same time was a coincidence. Luna did not believe in coincidences.

For now she would greet back to him, as he clearly held no ill intent towards her. "Hello Harry Potter. I don't mind you sitting next to me," Harry proceeded to sit himself down, and Luna introduced herself, "My name is Luna, Luna Lovegood, but most people call me Loony," finished Luna sadly.

Harry suppressed the rage at the callousness of those people, and gently put on hand on Luna's shoulder, so he could turn her to look him in the eyes. He said sincerely, "Luna is a lovely name. Ignore those who call you names; they are not worth listening to." Having said that, Harry was not going to take his own advice; anyone who had hurt his little moon, either emotionally or physically, would suffer his wrath.

Luna saw the sincerity in his eyes and she couldn't help but to trust him. "Thank you, Harry. No one had treated me this nicely since I arrived at Hogwarts. Nobody wanted to be friends with me because I can see the creatures that they don't believe existed."

"You shouldn't be treated badly because you are different. I would like to be your friend if you'd let me," said Harry gently.

Luna's eyes lost their spaced-out quality for a second; she reaffirmed that this wasn't a cruel prank. Moments later, a bright smile broke out from her face and Harry couldn't help but to smile back. "I would like to be your friend, Harry Potter."

"Thank you for giving me this chance, Luna. I understand how hard it is for you to make this leap of faith, and I promise you that you won't regret that you did." With that said, Harry started to pile breakfast on his plate while getting to know Luna again.

Suddenly, Luna asked, "Harry, how come you suddenly became much taller even though you don't look like it, and so much more powerful magically?"

If Harry was surprised by Luna's question, he didn't show it. Harry turned to her with a big grin on his face; Luna had just confirmed one of his suspicions about her. "You are truly a special girl, don't let anyone tell you differently." Luna blushed at Harry's praise, even though she didn't know what she did to deserve it; however, Harry proceeded to explain to her. "I think I can explain why you can see the creatures that others can't." Luna wondered how that got to do with Harry's changes, but she let him continue his explanation. "I have a glamour on to hide my true appearance, and only those gifted with a natural mage sight could see through the glamour I used. Perhaps some of those creatures you can see actually exist; in fact, I know the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks exist; you should tell your father to search for them in Norway. But I believe many other creatures you can see are actually magic; they represent different charms and enchantments, and you haven't learned how to interpret them properly yet."

Luna's eyes widened at Harry's explanation, if that was still possible on her already unusually wide eyes; Harry's explanation made so much sense. That was not to mention how Harry believed in Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and had told her where to find them. Given it was her mother who taught her about these creatures, Luna immediately came to the conclusion that her mother had the gift as well.

Harry noticed Luna had a sad smile on her face, and asked, "Are you thinking about your mother?"

Luna nodded, "How do you know?"

"I see the exact same expression in the mirror when I am reminiscing about lost loved ones. Sometimes I wonder which is worse: not having memories of them at all or having all those happy memories but knowing you won't make any new ones anymore."

"Have you decided yet?" asked Luna, curious about Harry's opinion on this.

Harry thought about it for a moment, trying to compare how he felt about losing his parents to losing Hermione and his other girls in his previous timeline. "I think in the short term, the latter is worse. But once you get over the grieving stage, I would rather have some of those happy memories than not at all. It is those happy memories that keeps me going, drives me to do better, so that I can live for them and when my time eventually comes, I shall be able to face them again with pride."

Luna could tell Harry was speaking from experience; initially, she thought 'them' was Harry's parents, but then she remembered how young Harry was when they died and therefore he would very unlikely to have any memories of them; she wondered who else Harry had lost in his short life.

Nevertheless, what Harry had just told her made a lot of sense; from now on, Luna would live for her mother's memories after nearly three years mourning for her.

Luna gave Harry a bright and teary smile. "Thank you, Harry!"

Harry didn't need to ask to know why she was thanking him; he gently took one of her hands in his own, and said softly, "Anytime, Luna."

Moments later, Luna recovered and decided to return to their previous topic. Being a true Ravenclaw despite what the others in her house thought, Luna asked, "Do you know where I can find the books on how to use my gift?"

"Yes and no," answered Harry cryptically, "Curse-Breakers use different spells to visualise magic, and they have an introductory book on how to interpret the visualisation. However, the full capability of the natural mage sight cannot be replicated by any charms, enchantments or rituals, and the gift is so rare in magical humans; none of the existing books on magic visualisation are really comprehensive. Besides, experience is a major factor in learning to use the gift.

"Given that there wasn't any good book on how to use the full capability of mage sight, after receiving the gift myself from one of my animagus forms, I wrote a guide myself that should be able to get you started. I will give you a copy of it later."

"Thank you, Harry!" said Luna gratefully. She was also wondering about the casual way that Harry had mentioned his animagus forms. She didn't know anyone could have more than one form, with at least one form clearly being a magical creature, let alone becoming an animagus at such a young age. Luna wondered if Harry could teach her how to become an animagus; she had always wanted to run around the forest as an animal. She was broken out of her musing by Harry.

"Don't thank me yet. As I said, the book could only be a guide; it would be good if someone experienced could teach you. While I have no problem teaching you about your gift myself, I know a friend who could do a better job. He is in the castle at the moment; how about I introduce you to him sometime later today? If it doesn't work out between you two, I am more than willing to teach you myself."

Luna nodded happily at Harry's suggestion; she could possibly gain another friend.

Just then, Harry saw a clearly irate Professor McGonagall march into the Great Hall.

By that time, the Great Hall was filled with students eating breakfast. Harry had noticed a number of people giving him strange looks, either for sitting next to Luna or because they were still of the opinion that Harry was behind the attacks. Harry just ignored them and carried on talking to Luna.

Nobody other than Harry seemed to notice the distinct lack of professors at the High Table. Harry's link to Cassie showed him that most of the staff were being checked over by Healers in the Hospital Wing, and Cassie had trapped the greasy bat in one of the staircases. It seemed that Poppy didn't want to waste any time.

Professor McGonagall stood on the raised platform for the High Table, and very effectively silenced the Great Hall.

"Students, your classes for today are cancelled," Some students cheered; the professor immediately cast a stern gaze at them to shut them up. "Use your time wisely to study for your end-of-year exams. And do not wander in the corridors alone, as the culprit for the attacks is still at large." The cheerfulness died immediately at that statement; some students cast their eyes towards Harry again, who just ignored the sheep.

When McGonagall stepped down and exited the Great Hall to return to the Hospital Wing for more scans, Harry turned to Luna again.

"Given you no longer have classes, how about we visit my friend now?"

Luna finished the last of her pudding, and answered enthusiastically, "Sure, Harry. Let's go!"

"My Lady," Harry stood up and offered Luna his arm.

Luna giggled, and looped her arm around Harry's, "Milord," returned Luna almost jokingly; she had seen Harry's disillusioned Lordship rings with her mage sight, but she couldn't decipher the exact shape of the rings yet.

As they left the Great Hall together, many people stared at them with a frown, but one particular pair of icy-blue eyes followed them brimming with curiosity.

Gringotts

11th May, 1993

High King Ragnok the Seventh, Chief of the Goblin Nation had just finished his morning exercise; as the leader of a warrior race, and despite being well over a hundred years of age, the High King showed his subjects why he was worthy of his title every day.

At eight thirty, the High King returned to his luxurious office to deal with the affairs of the global bank. The moment he settled down behind his desk, he was surprised by a flash of white flame. The High King was ready to swing his axe, but stopped immediately when he saw the white flame had left behind a pure-white phoenix.

Out of the few things the wand-wavers got right, one was the recognition of phoenixes as a species that should be revered; other sentient magical species recognized this even more than the wand-wavers.

Ragnok immediately stayed his axe and returned it to safety. He gave the beautiful phoenix a small but respective bow, knowing despite the magnificence of such a creature, phoenixes did not seek to be worshiped.

The High King took the envelope offered by the white phoenix with its beak, and he wondered who owned this majestic creature; he knew White Phoenixes were even rarer than normal phoenixes, and should be held in even higher regard.

The first thing he noticed on the envelope was that his name and title were written in Gobbledegook. This was definitely a surprise. The High King knew only a few wizards ever bothered to learn how to speak their language, but he didn't know any who could write it.

Being the leader of a nation, Ragnuk took the precaution to scan the letter despite the fact that it was delivered by a creature that was the ultimate representation of good. He proceeded to open the letter after the scan came back clean, knowing it would tell him the identity of this individual. Again he was surprised that the whole letter was written in Gobbledegook.

Greetings, Director Ragnok,

I apologize for contacting you directly. However, I believe this matter warrants the precautions I took to ensure this letter does not fall into the wrong hands.

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Harry Potter.

I have reason to suspect that Albus Dumbledore has conspired with some of your subjects to keep me and steal from my rightful inheritance. I would like to make an appointment with you to discuss these reasons in person, as I would like to give you a chance to do your own investigations.

To point you in the right direction, please investigate the goblin who replaced my family's old account manager as well as the one who authorised the replacement. I believe these two goblins are from the same clan, a member of which was the teller who greeted me during my first visit to Gringotts, who failed to point out that I should have my key.

Please let me know when we can meet at your convenience; as you can see, I have the means to get away from Hogwarts at any time. Hedwig will wait for your response.

May your enemies tremble at your feet,

Harry James Potter,

Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Gryffindor and Slytherin, Heir Apparent of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell, Heir Apparent of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Gaunt, Heir Apparent of the Most Ancient Clan of Therion, Heir Presumptive of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Ravenclaw, Heir Presumptive of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

Having read the letter, Ragnok knew immediately this matter required his utmost attention. For one, the young lord was clearly powerful, at least politically, and knew so himself; yet, he was respectful and lacked any sense of bigotry most wand-wavers had. By the way he addressed the letter, the young lord clearly showed that he knew and understood Goblins' customs very well. That was not to mention the young lord had a white phoenix.

If what the letter said was true, and the High King had no reason to doubt the young lord, Dumbledore's phoenix did not stay with the fool willingly, and that was even more criminal than stealing in his eyes.

It was also clear to Ragnok that the young lord knew exactly what was going on and which houses he would inherit from. He did wonder how he knew about the houses other than House Potter and House Gryffindor.

The Founders didn't have any vaults in Gringotts as the bank was established half a millennium after Hogwarts, but Goblin magic still allowed them to trace anyone's lineage back to much further than the Founders' time. Unlike other houses, the bank had no role in the passage of headship of any of the Founders' houses; how one received the headship ring of a Founder's house was only known by the holders of said rings. But, the bank was tasked to confirm anyone who claimed the headship of any Founders' houses using their magic. Ragnok was there when they confirmed Lord Charlus Potter's claim to the headship of House Gryffindor.

Clearly, young Harry Potter had followed his grandfather's footsteps. But Ragnuk was clueless about how he would inherit from the other houses, and a clan apparently.

The High King did know that if the young lord was able to claim the headship of House Peverell, it meant he had reunited the three separate Peverell bloodlines, and that was a very powerful house in its own right, both politically and financially. And someone in the Goblin Nation had to anger this clearly extremely powerful and wealthy young lord, who could probably bankrupt Gringotts. Luckily for him, the young lord seemed fair; the Chief of the Goblin Nation was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and would thoroughly investigate this matter personally.

The High King quickly wrote a letter back to invite the young lord to a meeting that afternoon, and he would start his investigations immediately.

Room of Requirement, Hogwarts Castle

11th May, 1993

Meanwhile, Harry had led Luna to the Room of Requirement, having made sure they weren't followed. The door appeared as he approached to Luna's amazement.

The pair were immediately greeted by Fawkes.

"Luna, may I introduce you to my friend, Fawkes."

"It's beautiful, Harry!" answered Luna in wonderment, she proceeded to introduce herself, "Hello, I'm Luna Lovegood."

"Fawkes is a he," corrected Harry.

"Sorry, Fawkes."

The phoenix just trilled and allowed Luna to pet him. Fawkes seemed to enjoy Luna's attention.

[Harry, thank you for bringing her here. She has a pure but lonely heart. I can tell you are already starting to drive away the loneliness from her. I like her and I wish to bond with her and help driving away her loneliness,] trilled the phoenix. Although Luna couldn't understand Fawkes yet, but his trills still brought joy to her.

"No problem, Fawkes. I am glad to help. I will let her know," answered Harry aloud.

By now Luna had turned to Harry; she carried on petting the phoenix. Luna asked, "You can understand him?"

"Yes," answered Harry simply.

"How?"

"It was my phoenix animagus form that gifted me with my mage sight; the spirit of my phoenix form helped me understand Fawkes," explained Harry. Luna just stared him in awe, she supposed only Harry could become a phoenix animagus by the age of twelve.

Harry continued, "I brought you here because I thought you might be interested to bond with Fawkes; he just informed me that he would like to bond with you. He would then be able to teach you how to use your mage sight."

Fawkes was surprised by Harry's last statement, but he definitely wouldn't mind teaching her.

Luna was definitely enthused to bond with Fawkes, "I would like that, Fawkes. Thank you for choosing me. But why wouldn't you bond with him?"

Harry chuckled, "Couple of reasons: one, I already have my beautiful Hedwig who probably would fight with Fawkes all day if I bond with both of them."

"I can hear you, Harry. I am not sure whether to smack you or thank you for that. You have a habit of praising me and insulting me in the same sentence," thought Hedwig to Harry indignantly.

"Please forgive me, girl. I have bacon for you when you get back," said Harry which seemed to successfully appease Hedwig. It amused Harry to no end that Hedwig's transformation to a white phoenix didn't seem to do much for her addiction to bacon.

"Two, I thought you could use another friend. I will always be your friend, Luna, but having Fawkes able to talk to you telepathically any time would cover those times that I can't be around," continued Harry gently.

Luna started to tear up, she hadn't experienced this much kindness since her mother died; even her father wasn't as thoughtful, as he was lost in his own grief. She enveloped her arms tightly around Harry's waist to bury her tear-stricken face in Harry's broad chest; Harry immediately returned the hug and rubbed his hand up and down her back soothingly.

Harry could feel her tears soaking his shirt. As Luna's breathing calmed down somewhat, he brought her head up gently, but didn't let go of her. Harry brought his slightly calloused hand to her cheek, and rubbed her tears away with his thumb; he stared into her eyes and said, "Hey, I'm here now. I'm sorry I wasn't here for you since the beginning of the year. But I promise you from now on, I will always be here for you. No matter what."

Looking into his emerald-green eyes, Luna couldn't help but lose herself in them; especially since he had dropped his glamour upon entering this room, she could see his gorgeous eyes without his glasses. She then did something that surprised both of them, she kissed him.

Despite not using his active Legilimency, Luna was projecting her thoughts so loudly, his near-telepathic passive Legilimency skill was picking up her thoughts anyway. Harry smiled internally as he thought that if it was anyone else who had tried to read Luna's mind, they would get a massive headache. But even with his super-advanced Mind Arts automatically unscrambling Luna's thoughts, he didn't see the kiss coming.

Surprised he was, but nevertheless, Harry returned the tender kiss and pushed all the feelings he had developed for her but never got the chance to express in his previous timeline into the kiss. Another layer of sorrow was lifted from his soul, and he could feel his soul reaching for her.

The kiss didn't last that long; they were only twelve after all, well at least physically for Harry, but they both felt the connection and the longing for each other.

Harry asked a question he thought he already knew the answer to. "I'm not regretting the kiss at all, but why did you kiss me, Luna?"

"The Blibbering Humdingers had been telling me to since you started talking to me today. I guess now that I know about my mage sight, I suppose the correct explanation is that your magic had been telling me to. But Blibbering Humdinger is just so much better an explanation," deadpanned Luna a little disappointedly.

Harry smiled fondly at her, "Yes, it is. And you can keep calling it that if you want. You know, to honor your mother's memory."

Luna smiled brightly at Harry's idea, "Thank you, Harry. I will do that." After a pause, she continued, "The Blibbering Humdingers are also telling me that you will kiss six other witches, and I don't mind, Harry. I am happy to share you."

Harry didn't know what to say to that, Luna had always been blunt. So he gathered her in his arms again and mumbled, "Never change, Luna."

Luna just smiled into his chest, feeling so safe in his arms that she never wanted to let go.

"Now, let's get back to what we came here for," said Harry while still holding Luna against him. "If Fawkes initiates the familiar bond with you, do you think you can finalise it?"

Luna finally let go of Harry and turned her attention back to Fawkes. "I'm not sure, but I would like to try."

"Go on then, I will be able to see your progress with my mage sight, and I shall give you some assistance if you are struggling. But I'm sure you can do it on your own."

It turned out Luna didn't need Harry's assistance. Without the old goat interfering, a magical person with sufficient power, especially one who grew up in the magical world, could easily sense a familiar bond forming and instinctively finalize the bond.

Seeing Luna happily chatting with her new familiar, Harry discreetly went to a separate room in the corner provided by the Room of Requirement to check on his godfather.

Diagon Alley,

11th May, 1993

Rita Skeeter walked into her office at the Daily Prophet; her attention was immediately drawn to a rather thick envelope on her table. She wondered how the envelope got into her office, as the editor had all incoming owls to the Daily Prophet redirected to a mail sorting centre.

She knew she had made her share of enemies, so she did her customary scan for curses before she broke the seal. The seal was one she didn't recognize, and she had made sure she memorized the family crest of all the important families.

There were a number of things in the envelope, including a letter addressed to her.

Miss Skeeter,

I am sure you are wondering who I am at the moment, but who I really am doesn't matter. What does matter is the job offer I have for you. You see, my employers have a number of people they would like to see publicly destroyed; and despite your inability to report anything truthfully, you do have a way with words.

I would like to hire you to report a number of questionable deeds done by certain people using your position at the Daily Prophet. However, instead of making things up, my employers want you to report facts that can be backed up by evidence, evidence either I will provide you with or you will collect yourself using your special talent. Maybe one day you will learn how truths are so much more powerful than lies when used correctly.

In the envelope, you should find certified copies of academic records of several major magical schools around the world for the past fifty years. I am sure you can see the clear decline in the standards of magical education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry since Albus Dumbledore became the Headmaster. That's right, the first person we would like you to target is Albus Dumbledore. (Hint: these records were supposed to be public, so why were they locked inside a cabinet in the Ministry?)

Consider this your audition. If my employers are satisfied with your work, we will make this a long-term arrangement and you will be well compensated according to the preliminary contract included in the envelope. I don't expect you to completely destroy Dumbledore's reputation with this little information, but I do expect you to get your readers to start questioning everything Dumbledore has done or claimed he has done.

You have till this Thursday (13th May) to publish your article before this generous offer is made to someone else.

Sincerely,

The Informant,

P.S. Remember, only report something as fact if you can back it up with evidence; if you have to speculate, make it clear in your articles that it is your opinion.

If your editor refuses to publish your article, you should owl me. Address the letter to 'The Informant' and the owls will find me.

Do NOT try to uncover my employers' or my identity, as you will not like the consequences; being an illegal animagus will be the least of your worries.

Padfoot had been asleep for over twelve hours straight in the Room of Requirement under time compression; he hadn't been this comfortable for God knew how long and he didn't want to wake up. But the smell of freshly roasted chicken was making his nose twitch; having not had any proper food for an equally long time, hunger won over comfort, and Padfoot pried his eyes open to confirm that he wasn't dreaming at the smell. Seeing he wasn't, he launched himself at the food literally a meter away from him.

Padfoot had transformed back to his human form as he started eating the delicious food. It seemed that the effect of his bath in his dog form had transferred to his human form as well; even his prison garb was clean for the first time in years.

So focused was he on the delicious food, the hungry man didn't even notice Dobby had silently Popped in and switched his prison garb with a set of comfortable and loose-fitting pajamas.

Half an hour later, Sirius had devoured all of the food given to him; only then did he notice a vial of potions with a note attached to it; the note read 'Drink this FIRST'.

"Oops!" responded Sirius in an entirely non-serious manner.

"Oops is right. I knew you wouldn't have noticed the vial before you finished the food, so I had my elf infuse the potion in your food," admonished Harry, who then banished the vial still filled with potions with a careless wave of his hand.

Seeing his godfather was not responsive, the reborn warrior carried on his admonishment, "You know you could have died from eating so much so quickly after starving for so long. Luckily I had foreseen your reaction to the food; the potions infused into your food will help in distending your stomach and digesting all that food you ate."

Sirius had been startled by the new voice; he didn't realise that Harry had been standing there observing his godfather since he had woken up. The old Marauder was just about to call out 'James' when he noticed many differences between the person in front of him and his best friend James. The person in front of him was much more built than James ever was, which was shown off by some sort of muggle exercise attire that James had never worn, although he was still shorter than James was since Sirius last saw his best friend. However, the biggest difference was his eyes: not only did the person in front of him not wear any glasses, but his eyes were emerald green rather than James' brown; they reminded him of Lily. It couldn't be Harry, could it?

"Harry?" asked the escaped prisoner tentatively as he slowly stood up.

It was clear to Harry now that his man-child of a godfather had not listened to a word of his lecture; he mentally shook his head at his godfather's antics. But he couldn't really blame the old dog either; his godfather had been falsely imprisoned for eleven years without any visitors other than the damned Dementors.

Harry walked over to Sirius with his arms open, and said, "Yes, it's me, Pa'foo. Come here!"

The two men embraced each other emotionally after being separated for so long; Sirius couldn't know it was much longer in his godson's perspective. Memories of his godfather falling through the Veil flashed across his mind as Harry let a few tears drop; another wound started to heal and the time-traveling warrior promised himself again that his loved ones would live for however long they wanted.

A while later, the two men separated, and tried to erase the evidence of their emotional acts. That was when Sirius noticed where he had been sleeping. The Grim-animagus erupted in laughter as he saw his pink fluffy dog bed with 'Padfoot' written above a pattern of a chew bone. A part of him was laughing at the rather subdued prank, but mostly he was happy that his godson had inherited at least some of the Marauder's nature, especially when he saw his best friend's son smirking in a way that reminded him so much of James.

When Sirius calmed down, his attention was drawn back to Harry's emerald eyes again. That was when he remembered how he left that hellhole called Azkaban, and the huge fearsome wolf.

"Was that you, Harry?" asked Sirius.

"Was what me, Sirius?" asked Harry back innocently. Sirius's Occlumency was adequate enough that Harry couldn't pick up his thoughts without the use of active Legilimency, but he had an inkling of what his godfather was asking.

"Don't act coy with me, Harry. That's my expertise," mock-lectured Sirius. "The big black wolf that broke me out of prison, was that you?"

The Marauders' heir smirked and said, "Oh, that's what you meant by 'that'. Why didn't you just say so?" The older Marauder huffed indignantly as his godson continued. "Of course it was me. You didn't think I would trust anyone else to break your mangy mutt's ass out of Azkaban, did you?"

As he finished, Harry transformed into his shadow wolf form and showed off his shadow elemental abilities by transporting using his own shadow to a shadow in the corner in the room.

"Blimey, Harry! Look at the size of you, even your uncle Moony would be intimidated by you! And your form is magical! Your father would be so proud, although not as proud as I am, as you obviously followed your brilliant godfather's footsteps and have a canine form," exclaimed the Grim-animagus excitedly and proudly.

Hearing that, the heir of the Marauders decided to tease his godfather and stop the swelling of his already giant head. He transformed to his other form with shadow elemental abilities. Unfortunately or fortunately, even during his years running away from Harry Hunting, his state of mind was never really prey; thus, none of his forms were prey of any kind either, which eliminated his chance of having any form related to his father's stag form. He would have to settle for something related to his mother's animagus form.

Until this day, the multi-animagus could not find out exactly what species his current form was. The closest related species was the Siberian tiger; however, his base colour was white instead of rusty-yellow. His black stripes were somewhat thicker, and he had two curved sabre-shaped and slightly longer, but not long enough to extrude out of his mouth, canine teeth. His tail seemed to be on fire, except the flames were black, and even his adolescent sized body was nearly twice the size of a fully-grown Siberian tiger.

For a shadow elemental species, his current form wouldn't be very good at concealment unless it was operating in a snow-covered forest. Fitting, as this particular animal spirit manifested during his time serving as a black-ops soldier for the Americans when he was operating alone in the Siberian mountains destroying Russian facilities.

His shadow tiger form was also not as agile as his shadow wolf form; however, it made up for this with its brute strength and power as well as having several additional ways to manipulate the shadows: the aforementioned tail was three meters long with its shadow flame capable to extend indefinitely and restrain or even consume anything in the shadow-flamed rope's path. The shadow tiger could also breathe out shadow flames from its mouth, encompassing its enemies in a dark and burning hell.

Sirius saw his godson transformed to an enormous tiger with black flames shooting out of its tail; he wasn't sure if he wanted to jump in excitement at his godson's accomplishment or piss himself in fear. He did make the same oath he made when Lily first transformed to a relatively normal Siberian tiger, and silently promised himself to never piss off Harry.

After he made his silent oath, the old prankster calmed down from his fear and a big grin broke out of face. "You have more than one form? And both are magical to boot! You don't do anything halfway, do you? I so wish your mother could see you now," said Sirius. He finished the last part wistfully, and with not a little sadness.

Harry returned to his human form, and embraced his godfather again. He really wished that he could let his godfather know that his parents were still alive, but Sirius' mental state wasn't really stable right then, and the calculating mage couldn't predict how the escaped prisoner was going to react. But then again, maybe knowing his parents were still alive could help Sirius heal, and it wasn't like he didn't have the magical power to restrain his severely weakened godfather, especially when his godfather didn't even have a wand.

Harry sat his godfather in a chair provided by the room, which would restrain Sirius without him knowing as well as constantly magically calm him.

Harry turned very serious and said, "Sirius, I am going to reveal many things to you, some of which you might not believe. Can you promise me that you will stay calm and not act impulsively like the way you did to land yourself in prison?"

Sirius cringed and knew his best friend's son mentioned his arrest to guilt him to do as his godson suggested. "I promise, Harry. So what do you want to tell me?"

The experienced mage decided to build it up slowly to see how his godfather reacted. "It should be clear to you by now that I know you didn't betray my parents, otherwise I wouldn't have broken you out of prison."

Sirius being Sirius, he teased back, "I don't know, maybe you wanted to put me in a false sense of security, and kill me then?"

Harry chuckled, "Well, I am glad you can joke about it." The time traveler turned serious again, and said, "I also know it was Peter who betrayed my family and it was him who killed those twelve non-magicals."

Sirius growled at the mention of Peter, but instantly calmed; obviously, the chair's magic was working. Now that he was calm and able to think, Sirius said with regret, "I shouldn't have gone after him; I should have insisted with Hagrid and look after you."

"Good, at least you are learning from your mistakes. Hagrid has a gentle but incredibly naïve soul; what he did was kidnapping of the Heir Apparent of a Most Noble and Most Ancient House, and he sent me to the Dursleys under Dumbledore's order against my parents' will. Sure he was just following orders, but so were Hitler's soldiers. I forgive him because he was the first person to treat me nicely since that Halloween night, but he was part of the reason that two of us suffered unnecessarily, so he'd better learn his lesson," ranted Harry.

Sirius was very upset despite being constantly and unknowing applied with calming charms. He would have ranted if his godson had not already done that for him.

The master Occlumens calmed down very quickly with his Occlumency. His Occlumency could keep his emotions under wraps instantly when he wished, but it wasn't designed to keep him constantly emotionless; Harry didn't want to live that way.

Sirius was just about to apologize for his part in Harry's growing up with the Dursleys when his godson cut him off. "Don't apologize for something that wasn't your fault, the old bastard would have removed you from my life anyway."

"I know why you wouldn't like Dumbledore for his sending you to the Dursleys, but I didn't expect this much hostility towards him. May I ask why?" asked Sirius.

"If you have to ask that question, I am guessing that Dumbledore didn't know that Peter was the secret keeper," stated the perceptive warrior. At Sirius' nod, Harry continued, "Well we will have to verify that by checking your memories. I will do that when I use my Legilimency to heal your mind from the effects of the Dementors later."

"You think Dumbledore obliviated me?" exclaimed the angry escaped prisoner, who tried to jump up, and only then did he realise he was restrained. He was calmed again by the magic of the chair and the Marauder had finally realised that particular function of the chair his godson had put him in. "Oh very Slytherin of you, having me willingly sit in a chair to be restrained and calmed magically. I don't know if I should be appalled or proud." Before Harry could respond, Sirius changed topics instantly when he realised something else his pup had said.

"Wait, you know Legilimency? And you know it well enough to heal my mind from however long I was under the tender mercy of the Dementors?" The battle mage just nodded as if that was not impressive at all. "How could you possibly know that if you grew up with the Dursleys? You couldn't be older than fourteen! That meant you only had three or four years of magical education maximum! Speaking of which, how did you manage your animagus transformation so young? Your father and I couldn't transform with the speed you were doing until our sixth year. And while I'm on a roll, where are we anyway?"

Silence dawned for a minute before the patient warrior responded, "You finished?" The old prankster didn't look even remotely embarrassed, but he did nod affirmatively.

"Good," continued Harry. "To answer your questions, yes, I believe Dumbledore did a number of things to your mind. While I have confirmed the old goat's signature for memory charms as well as a number of potions, I can't be sure what he did exactly until I look into your mind. I would say a lot, given how many questionable decisions you and my parents made that ultimately led to what happened that Halloween."

Sirius nodded in understanding; he knew he was impulsive, but even then, he had wondered why he did some of the things he did that eventually landed him in prison. Maybe Harry was right and the white-bearded bastard was responsible for the Marauders' more questionable decisions.

"As for my skill in Legilimency, let's just say my proficiency would make Dumbledore's skill look like child's play. As for how I am so good at Mind Arts as well as able to transform to my animagus forms, I will explain that when everyone needed to know is present; it's a particularly long explanation and I don't feel like explaining it too many times."

Sirius accepted that with a nod.

"By the way, I am only twelve; today's date is the eleventh of May, nineteen ninety-three. You have been locked away for eleven and a half years." It was obvious that Sirius was sad that he had wasted his prime locked away in prison, so Harry said the next part gently, "Padfoot, I hope this has taught you to never act without thinking again. It matters not whether it was Dumbledore's influence that made you chase after Peter; from what I learned about you, you were always impulsive and that impulsiveness would allow Dumbledore to manipulate you to do things you would regret anyway."

Properly chastised, the wrongfully-imprisoned man nodded seriously and Harry continued, "Cheer up; I didn't break you out to brood. Besides, if I can heal your mind, don't you think I would know how to heal the rest of you? But I am afraid no amount of magic could make you less ugly."

Sirius was hopeful for a second there before he adopted an offended expression; inwardly, he was glad for his godson's ability to make light of a sad situation. "Who are you calling ugly? You obviously haven't heard of my reputation with the witches."

"You mean the reputation you dreamt up!" countered the younger Marauder immediately. Before his godfather could continue, the battle mage changed the subject again. "There are still a couple of questions I haven't answered. Tell me, do you know about the Room of Requirement?" Sirius shook his head negatively. "That's where we are at the moment. It's a room in Hogwarts that can become whatever you require. Clearly my parents kept that knowledge to themselves; as Gryffindor's and Ravenclaw's true heirs, they would have to know about this room."

Harry moved on before the old prankster could get too excited about the possibilities of pranks he could pull using this room or complain about being kept away from such a magnificent room. "As for why my hostilities and suspicions were all targeted at Dumbledore, tell me, does Dumbledore know you are my magical godfather?"

That one question made the devious man immediately decide that Dumbledore was an enemy. "Of course! The old bastard would have to know that I couldn't possibly betray your parents, as I would have dropped dead instantly instead of rotting away with the Dementors. And given that he was and still is the Chief Warlock, he had the authority to grant me a trial. That fucking bastard! He took twelve years away from me! He took twelve years away from us!" raged the escaped prisoner, who wanted to do nothing but to strangle Dumbledore with his own beard.

When Sirius calmed down enough, Harry said calmly but firmly, "Don't worry, Sirius. We will make the old bastard pay. I am not sure there's enough of him to pay for all that he has done, but I have it on good authority that he will not enjoy his so-called 'next Great Adventure'."

The harsh glint in Harry's emerald green eyes, as well as the vindictive tone his godson had spoken with, in such calm manner, had the older Marauder almost feeling sorry for the long-bearded bastard. Almost, but not quite.

His gentle demeanor returned again, and Harry said, "What I am about to tell you next will be the hardest for you to believe, but I swear to you that this is not a cruel joke."

Sirius carefully nodded and wondered what his pup had got in store for him.

"What do you know about the long-lost Battle Clan of Therion?" asked Harry.

What followed was a long explanation of what Harry had found out about his mother's ancestry. In short, Lily's father and mother were squib-descendants of the Ravenclaw and Therion families respectively. He then went on explaining how his mother had performed two rituals she found from the Therion Family Grimoire to save the Potters; he didn't go into any details of the rituals as those were sealed by family magic and could only be revealed by the current head of the clan to the outsiders, and the time-traveller hadn't claimed that particular inheritance in his current timeline yet.

When Sirius heard how James and Lily were still alive but in stasis, his emotions were all over the place. First, he was shocked. He was then in denial and thought Harry was living in denial. Eventually, he became hopeful that his best friend and his wife were still alive, and finally his pup managed to convince him they indeed were really still alive. All his sadness evaporated immediately, and he became very excited.

His godfathers' response reminded Harry of the Potter elves. "We should go revive James and Lily then! Come on, let's go!" exclaimed the excited man while he was jumping up and down, or as much as he could move while magically tied down to a chair.

Harry glared at his godfather without much effect, but he didn't really glare that hard as he could understand the old dog's eagerness. "Don't you think I would have already done that if I didn't have a good reason not to? Think, Sirius! You are acting impulsively again!" The wrongfully-imprisoned man wilted a little, but his anxiety was clear for all to see. "What would the rest of the Wizarding World think if my mum and dad suddenly showed up after being claimed dead for nearly twelve years without aging a day?"

The Black heir immediately understood the implications; he wasn't stupid after all. "They would declare them dark, especially your mother, given she was… is muggle-born, even though that's not really true. The ministry would try to arrest them and seize their vaults for 'inspection'."

"Precisely, especially with Dumbledore still in power. He would see their survival as a threat to all his plans and he would try to get rid of them by whatever means necessary." Sirius nodded in agreement; he had lost all his excitement. "What I am going to do is to contact two high-ranking ministry officials I know I can trust and arrange for them to witness their revival. This way they can testify that there is nothing dark about the rituals when my parents announce their survival if they do decide to live as James and Lily Potter in public again."

The older Marauder again nodded in understanding. He did marvel at his godson's self-control and thoroughness, but really, he had no idea how thorough his pup really was. Harry knew he would be able to have the support of at least 40% of the votes in the Wizengamot and the control of the Daily Prophet as well as any other major wizarding media outlet by the end of the summer at the latest, so he could both control the ministry's reactions and sway the public's opinions; having Amelia and Croaker witnessing his parents' revival was just an extra precaution.

"I am not sure how well you know these two, but the two ministry officials I will contact are Amelia Bones, the current head of the DMLE and Unspeakable Croaker, second-in-command of the Department of Mysteries. In fact, the letter to one of those two should be en route as we speak. As for how I know they can be trusted, don't concern yourself about that for now; the explanation for this goes with how I am so good with magic."

Looking into Harry's determined eyes and remembering how his godson had broken him out of Azkaban without breaking a sweat, Sirius decided to trust that his pup knew what he was doing. "If you are sure, pup, then I trust your judgment."

Harry smiled and said sincerely, "Thank you for your confidence in me, Padfoot. I should be ready to revive my parents by the end of this week or next week at the latest. I am just as anxious as you are if not more so to see them alive and well again.

"As for you, you need to stay here to get better both physically and mentally. This place will be perfectly safe until I can get your name cleared. I have changed the wards so that this room only grants access to those I allow to use the room.

"I have prepared potion and exercise regimes for you so you can recover physically; Dobby will ensure that you follow the regimes to the letter." Dobby Popped in at the moment Harry said his name, surprising the escaped prisoner with his appearance.

"Have house-elves gotten taller since I was locked up?" asked a shocked Sirius.

Harry laughed at his godfather's expression, glad he had gotten one over the much-more-experienced prankster. "I will let Dobby explain to you about that one once I am gone. Be warned, Dobby is family, so treat him well with respect." Dobby puffed up in pride as Harry said this. The battle mage handed the proud elf a conjured parchment, which detailed the regimes Harry prepared for his godfather. Dobby Popped away immediately after receiving his instructions.

"For your mental health, I will come by to spend an hour or so every day to work through your memories. And during that time, I will teach you to get better at Occlumency. While I doubt you will see the old goat or the greasy bat anytime soon, I can't have some of the secrets I will tell you or already told you to be discovered by anyone I haven't told. And I dislike relying on secrecy oaths."

"Why not?" asked Sirius immediately.

The centuries-old battle mage promptly explained, "If you swore a secrecy oath to me, a Legilimens with skill equal or greater than Dumbledore and Voldemort could still pull the information out of your mind. Whilst I am skilled enough to not risk your magic if I was the one using Legilimency on you, I doubt you would keep your magic if anyone else did it. My skill in Mind Arts is second to none on Earth, and that includes all sentient magical creatures."

Sirius wasn't sure if he believed his godson's last proclamation but didn't really doubt his pup either. After all, he had seen his twelve-year-old godson transformed to two different magical animagus forms, and people had said neither having two animagus forms nor having a magical form was possible.

Either way, the marauder didn't want to risk losing his magic, so he readily agreed to learn more Occlumency from his pup. Besides, this meant he got to spend more time with his godson; they had lost so much time already.

After Harry saw Sirius agreeing, the Marauders' heir decided to add an extra incentive for the old Marauder, "I will get your name cleared soon enough, and I will do my best to accomplish this without using the rat. If you are good and work hard to get better, the rat will be a reunion present for mum, dad, Moony and you!"

The wrongfully-imprisoned man immediately perked up, "Are you telling me you have the rat, pup?"

"Indeed I do, Padfoot. I have it secured and under a stasis charm. It will stay that way until your name is cleared; it's an insurance policy," explained Harry.

Once again, Sirius wondered about his clearly brilliant godson; his pup seemed to have a plan, and multiple contingency plans for everything. The older Marauder thought he might never get to prank his godson again, who seemed to be too careful to be caught out by anything. Then again, he always enjoyed a challenge.

Potter Farm, Cambridgeshire

11th May, 1993

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore finally got out of the bed after a fitful night's sleep; his sister's words repeated themselves in his mind over and over again, and his Occlumency was very little help in blocking them out. Right then, he felt particularly tired, just like he did the evening before. The old man decided to put off dealing with the Board of Governors for another day.

He then reached for his wand to summon his robes, and just then, he realised that he didn't dream about losing the Elder Wand. Doubts started to seep into his mind, as it seemed everything was working against him. But the manipulative man reaffirmed to himself, no, everything I did, I did for the Greater Good, and I will see to it that all my plans come to fruition.

He decided to spend a day to recover before starting to implement plans to get his job back.

Ministry of Magic

11th May, 1993

Little did the old man know, a storm was brewing against him, and many plans were working together so the self-styled Leader of Light would never get his job as Headmaster of Hogwarts back. Not if Rita Skeeter had anything to say about it.

The hated or loved reporter, depending on your perspective, hesitated just a little in accepting the mysterious job offer. She disliked the fact that she was no longer allowed to make up lies and report them as facts, but she thought if her new employer could supply information this good, she wouldn't need to make up lies. This 'Informant' was right in saying that truths were so much more powerful than lies.

She did wonder briefly who her new employer and her new employer's employers were, but she ceased that line of thinking quite quickly. Both 'the carrot' and 'the stick' were well presented to her; the illegal animagus didn't want to end up in Azkaban and she definitely liked her new information source as well as her new salary.

The popular reporter made good use of the Informant's hint and made her way to the ministry to do some more investigation in her animagus form.


	8. Daphne and Tracey

Entrance Hall, Hogwarts Castle

11th May, 1993

At the same time as Rita made her way to the ministry, the Head of the DMLE, Director Amelia Bones entered Hogwarts Castle with her two escorts: her second-in-command Senior Auror Captain Kingsley Shacklebolt and a freshly-out-of-the-Academy but rather talented Junior Auror Nymphadora Tonks. The Head of the DMLE was summoned by two rather angry women: Acting Headmistress McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey. As her beloved niece Susan was in Hogwarts, the normally stern and by-the-book woman dropped everything and immediately headed to Hogwarts to investigate.

Luna had barely noticed that Harry was gone when he came back; it wasn't too long in her perspective anyway. Cassie had found a way to implement different time dilation ratios to the two rooms currently in the Room of Requirement, so although hours had passed in the godfather's and son's perspectives, only twenty minutes had passed for the young Ravenclaw. Besides, she was still chatting animatedly with her newly-acquired familiar when her new boyfriend came back.

The experienced warrior was rather content to just watch his little moon be happy, so he observed and discussed mentally about the time dilation fields with his daughter. The learned mage was quite impressed with Cassie with the way she isolated the time dilation fields, and that provided him with an inspiration, which he immediately proposed to the brilliant entity.

"Princess, do you think you can find a way to cast a time bubble, which you can both control the size and the shape of, as well as the time dilation ratio at will?" mentally inquired the ex-Head of the Department of Mysteries.

"That would be so cool! I will work on it Daddy!" answered Cassie enthusiastically.

"Thank you, my Princess. I have every confidence that you will succeed. Let me know if you want my input." The millennium-old entity beamed back mentally at her daddy's words and went to work on her new project.

By then, Luna had finally finished her first chat with Fawkes; she turned her head to look at Harry again and they both grinned at each other: the former in happiness and the latter in seeing the former was happy.

The happy girl then jumped into her new boyfriend's arms and proceeded to kiss him; again, it was a relatively innocent kiss for the immortal warrior, but it lasted a lot longer than their first kiss. Harry gave a quizzical look to his little moon when they broke apart, to which Luna immediately answered his unasked question.

"I like kissing you, and I will endeavor to kiss you as often as I can," she said in her usual carefree and blunt way with her newfound happiness mixed into her voice.

If Harry was surprised by the blonde girl's answer, he didn't show it. The reborn mage did respond by kissing his little moon again, who happily returned and savoured the kiss. When they broke their kiss this time, Harry said, "You won't hear me complaining about it, my lady."

Luna smiled brightly and replied, "Thank you, milord."

The powerful battle mage had spent the rest of that morning with Luna in the Room of Requirement, getting to know each other; during that time, Hedwig had flashed in to deliver High King Ragnok's reply. The animal-loving girl was absolutely awed by the majestic white phoenix, which had resulted in some bickering between Hedwig and Fawkes. Their bickering, however, didn't last that long due to the loving and equal attention Luna had paid to them both.

They left the Room of Requirement after Luna was informed on how to access said room. Hedwig decided to tag along with her human, whereas Fawkes decided to keep the recovering Sirius company and do some flying while the old dog exercised under Dobby's watchful eyes. The recently-freed phoenix's decision probably had something to do with Hedwig's earlier comment about him becoming a fat turkey after being kept in the old coot's office for so long.

Much to Hedwig's indignation, her human had put a glamour on her, hiding her new majestic form after fixing his own disguise; only Harry's reassurance that she was just as beautiful in her old owl form calmed the 'slightly'-vain bird.

The famous wizard knew that some attention would always be directed at him in the magical world; he had come to terms with it sometime during his last four centuries of life in a timeline that would never be. However, that didn't mean he wanted to draw more attention to himself, at least not yet; having a white phoenix on his shoulder would definitely do that. That was not to mention how weird it would look to have such an enormous bird perched on the scrawny body everyone saw. In reality, the phoenix's natural magic along with the battle mage's animagus-enhanced strength allowed Hedwig to perch on said battle mage's much-broader real shoulders without any discomfort to Harry.

Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle

11th May, 1993

Harry was again sitting at the Ravenclaw table, having lunch while happily chatting with his little moon, with the snow-white 'owl' perched on his right shoulder. The master Occlumens had established a temporary telepathic link with Luna, so she could understand Hedwig; this also enabled them to have a private mental conversation when the topics of the conversation required it.

As he ate and chatted with two of his girls, Harry noticed again the lack of staff at the High Table; however, the Hospital Wing seemed to be quite crowded. It looked like Madam Bones had summoned more Aurors, Healers, and two Unspeakables; the time-traveler even recognized names of the two Unspeakables present. The battle mage wondered what the Unspeakables were doing there, to which Cassie provided the answer: the old goat had used his Alchemy skills when dosing his employees, which the Healers could detect but were unable to treat; thus, Madam Bones had called in help from the Department of Mysteries.

Harry was planning to introduce himself to Madam Bones in person after lunch, but it looked like the director already had her hands full, so he would see if he could find a better opportunity after his meeting with the goblin chief.

Speaking of which, the battle mage considered himself quite lucky so far: Harry didn't plan for Professor McGonagall to cancel all the classes that day, but she did, which meant that he could attend his two o'clock meeting with the High King without worrying about being missed from the castle; the former Unspeakable had planned to craft a temporary time-turner to deal with that particular issue, which was no longer needed for the time being.

Somehow during their private mental conversation, their focus shifted to the subject of the attacks, which naturally led to Harry explaining how he planned to acquire Melissa the Basilisk as a familiar. The following response from Luna managed to surprise the master Occlumens.

"So you really are the Heir of Slytherin, even though you are not the one behind the attacks," said the perceptive girl in an entirely-nonchalant manner.

"What? How?"

Harry realized that his shock must have registered over the telepathic link, as his little moon timidly asked, "I am sorry, am I not supposed to know that?"

The perceptive mage immediately recognized his new girlfriend's insecurities resurfacing; he should have expected that as despite how well they hit it off, Luna had only known him for half a day, and she must be worried that she might lose her new friend with that comment. With the life she had so far, Harry understood that her trust would have to be earned slowly over time.

He quickly softened his expressions and gathered Luna into the safety of his arms. Harry soothed his little moon by running his hand over her back and with his gentle words over the telepathic link, "It's alright, my little moon. I don't mind you knowing anything about me, as I don't have anything to hide from you; just like you don't have to hide anything from me. I was just quite surprised how quickly you figured it out, as I myself only acquired Salazar's ring very recently."

By this time, Luna had melted into her boyfriend's arms; clearly, her fear of losing her new boyfriend was unfounded. She stayed where she was and explained her reasoning, "I saw the Lordship rings on your finger, but I couldn't decipher to which families they belong. When you said you planned to bond with Slytherin's Basilisk with such confidence, not to mention that you already knew her name, I realized that you must have somehow gained Salazar Slytherin's blessing to bond Melissa. I then remembered the laws of conquest, which led me to deduce that Slytherin had acknowledged and approved you as his heir."

Listening to her reasoning, the experienced battle mage tightened his embrace over his little moon. "Brilliant, Luna, you are simply brilliant, and never let anyone else tell you differently."

Luna just burrowed deeper into her boyfriend's embrace, and let a few happy tears drop. Here was someone who accepted all of her, and he was hers. Maybe not hers alone, but whoever else was going to share their Harry would be hers as well. The young Ravenclaw couldn't be happier and couldn't wait to have more friends.

A silence stretched for a while before Harry spoke again. "As a reward for your brilliance, I am going to introduce you to the Founders later today or tomorrow," Luna's eyes sparkled at that and the battle mage continued, "but for now, I am going to see if I can bond with Melissa before my appointment with High King Ragnok. As much as I would like to take you with me this time, I think it would be the best if I greet her by myself this time. As a Parselmouth, I am immune to her deathly gaze; you, on the other hand, would be in danger until I am sure she would obey only my commands."

"I understand, Harry. Please be careful, I can't lose you as well." Luna didn't mean for Harry to hear the last bit, but given they were talking using their temporary telepathic link in the first place, the master Occlumens heard it anyway.

Harry gave his little moon a bit of a squeeze to reassure her, "Don't worry about me, I will always be with you. Call my name out anytime you need me; given I have control of the castle's wards, I will be able to hear you anywhere and would be with you in an instant."

With that said, Harry gave Luna a kiss on her cheek, before he released her from his embrace and stood up to leave the Great Hall. He mentally instructed the Hogwarts elves and one of the Potter elves to look after Luna.

As usual, Harry Potter's movement drew many eyes in the Great Hall; many had looked strangely at the budding relationship between the Boy-Who-Lived and Loony Lovegood. Luckily for them, nobody said anything, as the most tactless students in Hogwarts were being kept in the Hospital Wing at the time, and the rest were either afraid of drawing the ire of the Heir of Slytherin or ashamed of accusing their savior as the attacker.

Once again, a pair of icy-blue eyes discreetly followed the famous or infamous boy, brimming with curiosity. Instead of merely observing this time, the resident Ice Queen of Slytherin decided that there were too many changes happening around the Potter heir to not actively seek more information.

Ground floor corridor, Hogwarts Castle

11th May, 1993

Hedwig followed her human out on his shoulders, again; she made an observation as the 'new' Lord Slytherin made his way towards the Chamber of Secrets.

"You are certainly going to have an interesting pair of familiars."

At her human's questioning look, Hedwig mentally chuckled, then explained to her human, "You are bonded to me, a white phoenix, the ultimate symbol of light, even more so than normal phoenixes. You are to bond with a Basilisk, the epitome of dark creatures. Now, that certainly qualifies as interesting, doesn't it?"

Harry burst out laughing; some passer-by looked at him strangely, which the warrior-mage promptly ignored. "That certainly is an interesting observation, Hedwig. Thank you, girl. Oh how I missed you! Anyways, you shouldn't mistake dark for evil, and light for pure like the rest of Wizarding Britain have."

At Hedwig's obvious 'explain' look, the future Headmaster of Hogwarts continued, "The way Wizarding Britain had classified light and dark is totally rubbish. They praise the old goat as the Leader of Light, when in reality, he is nothing more than a manipulative bastard who doesn't have the guts to get his own hands dirty. He had no problem getting people killed to achieve his own agenda, as long as he didn't have to do it himself or directly order someone to do it.

"As for all the so-called dark magic classified by the Ministry, that was purely to control what the population can do. True, there are curses that are truly dark and evil; the three Unforgivables favoured by the Death Eaters are good examples, as to successfully cast them, you have to fill yourself with hate, enjoy controlling others and enjoy causing pain. Thus, successfully casting any of those three curses will taint one's soul and magical core. Having said that, those three Unforgivable Curses were modified from curses that don't require hate as a component, but a much higher amount of magical power to cast."

By now, Harry had moved far enough from the Great Hall to be able to Shift away without anyone noticing, that was if the battle mage had not noticed two particular snakes trying to follow him discreetly. The experienced mage thought they were making a very good effort trying to be discreet given their age and experience. However, he wasn't a Grand Battle Mage for nothing; he had noticed the two little snakes before they even left the Great Hall, and that was without Cassie's help.

Harry was currently out of his two follower's line of sight, thus he could Shift away and lose his tails easily. However, an opportunity to speak with these two was one the 'young' wizard could not pass up, so he decided to lead them to a more private region of the castle before introducing himself. Harry carried on walking at a gradually slowing pace while he continued with his lecture for Hedwig mentally.

"Phoenix is not the symbol of light, but a symbol of good and pure. I had killed many and used some of the so-called dark curses including the unmodified versions of the Unforgivable Curses; although, there were some instances where my magic was fuelled by vengeance, but in the end, I only served justice and made people pay for their crimes. I killed, so they could not harm another innocent again. I had never enjoyed killing nor torturing and I never knowingly hurt anyone for my personal gain. And thus, both my magic and my soul remained pure.

"Each of my animagus forms is a representation of my character at some stage of my life; usually a new form appears after a big life-changing event, while keeping the spirit of my existing forms. I am not sure when my Royal Phoenix form appeared, him along a few other forms' spirits were all there in my soul when I first studied animagus transformations with the Native Americans. But I know he is an exception in that, if I ever strayed far enough from good, the spirit of Royal Phoenix would leave me behind. Therefore, not wanting to become who I am fighting against, I frequently check on my soul and my magic, as well as consult with the spirit of the Royal Phoenix.

"Basilisks are dark creatures because the majority of the population are afraid of snakes as well as wizards and witches who can talk to snakes. I suppose enough dark wizards or witches have given Parselmouths a bad reputation.

"In addition, snake parts, especially the venom are used in many dark rituals. But people seemed to choose to forget, snake venoms could be used in many powerful healing potions. In my opinion, the sheeple are just afraid that magic cast in Parseltongue is particularly powerful, and there was no way they could counter it as they couldn't understand what was being cast. Plus, they are jealous as Parselmagic is particularly useful in an activity I will not mention," finished Harry his lecture with a slight and instantaneous blush.

Hedwig was listening intently to her human's explanations until her human said his last sentence. Despite him catching himself in time, enough fragments of memories her human was reviewing made it to Hedwig's mind, which clued her into just what activity he was referring to.

If she could blush, Hedwig would, so she just settled on swatting her human on the back of his head with her wing, while scolding him, "Get your mind out of the gutter, Harry. I am sure their younger versions, who are probably still sitting in the Great Hall now, wouldn't appreciate those thoughts."

"Oh, but I know two of them who are not," retorted Harry. Deciding to be cheeky, the young mage said what was to follow that statement out loud to see if he could get the two snakes following him to react. "Besides, you never know, they might appreciate it."

The experienced mage was successful with his bait, as one of his followers decided to cut in his conversation with his beautiful familiar. "Who might appreciate what, Potter?"

That was his cue. Smirking inwardly, Harry turned around to face the younger versions of two of his past lovers: Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis. Looking at them, the time-traveler was reminded of the beautiful women they would become.

Flashback

Senior Auror Captain Harry James Potter, secretly Unspeakable Peril, was working at a DMLE office he shared with his partner of nine years and lover for four, Senior Auror Captain Susan Amelia Bones.

They had kept their relationship secret, knowing it could be used against them. However, every so often, they would do something kinky in their shared office. And today was one of those days. They had just cleaned themselves up when three ex-Slytherins dropped into their office. Astoria Malfoy née Greengrass, her sister Daphne Greengrass, and Tracey Davis who never seemed to leave Daphne's side.

Both Susan and Harry immediately had their wands ready under the table. Harry held no ill will against the trio, as his powerful memory couldn't remember any incidents where Daphne or Tracey joined with Draco Malfoy in his taunts. Harry also remembered seeing Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria discreetly helping the light side with injured combatants during the Battle of Hogwarts. But Astoria was a Malfoy now, both Lucius and Draco had again chosen the wrong side in the Third Wizarding War, and both had bought their way out again, so Harry was right to be cautious of the wife.

All three showed their hands to indicate that they were not armed, but Harry knew there were wand holsters on the markets that were charmed to be invisible, and could eject their wand into the user's hands by a flick of the wrist, like the ones he was wearing, except that his was even better. So both Harry and Susan remained alert.

Daphne seemed to be the spokesperson of the group, and said, "We mean you no harm, Potter, Bones. We are here to ask for protection from the Malfoys. The albino git my sister was forced to marry is planning for another uprising, and we want no part of it."

The Unspeakable knew Daphne must have had some Occlumency training from her Ice Queen acts during their Hogwarts years; he wasn't confident enough with his Legilimency yet to ensure he could probe into her mind undetected, but he knew enough passive Legilimency to know Daphne spoke the truth from Tracey's and Astoria's mind.

The Auror gave his partner a nod, they both relaxed, and the master Occlumens withdrew any form of Legilimency. Unlike Dumbledore, law enforcement officers didn't like invading other people's privacy, but he would use it to gain an advantage during battles.

During the following discussion, they found out that Lucius Malfoy had tortured the elder Greengrasses into signing an unbreakable marriage contract during the Second Wizarding War. However, Lord Cygnus Greengrass was crafty enough to avoid losing the Greengrass family fortune to the Malfoys, but he still lost his youngest daughter to the contract. It was fortunate that Draco Malfoy was possessive enough so that Astoria had only needed to tolerate him alone, without being whored out like some other Dark families did.

Daphne and Tracey never married; they were put off by the junior Death Eaters' actions since the beginning of their fifth year right after Voldemort came back. They managed to protect each other from even the most persistent rapists in the snake pit, but not everyone was so lucky, and they had witnessed some of those hideous crimes being committed right in the common room with Snape only half-heartedly 'trying' to stop them.

Three months later, with the three extremely cunning witches' help, the pair of Senior Auror Captains managed to stop Lucius and Draco Malfoy for good by legally killing both in a well-set trap, thus postponing the Fourth Wizarding War.

During those three months, the five of them got closer, and they had kept in touch after Draco and Lucius Malfoy's deaths. Daphne asked why Harry hadn't taken his seat in the Wizengamot, to which the Potter heir explained his problems with Gringotts due to his break-in in 1998, hence why he had not managed to take his Lordship yet, and he was working on solving the problem. He just couldn't tell her it was Croaker who was helping him.

It was when she asked him why he didn't take his Lordship at eleven, which he could have as the last Potter, Harry had told the Slytherin all about Dumbledore's manipulations.

Daphne was appalled by everything she learned from the emerald-eyed young man; she now had a further understanding why the Noble and Most Ancient House of Greengrass had remained neutral and voiced her opinion to the other four in their little group.

The cunning blonde then suggested threatening the goblins with telling the public that, it was them who allowed Dumbledore to steal from Harry James Potter, the last of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter, Order of Merlin, First Class, orphan of two war heroes, Boy-Who-Lived, Man-Who-Won and his many other bloody titles.

The young war hero did just that, thinking he didn't have much to lose, and got a meeting with High King Ragnok the Seventh, Chief of the Goblin Nation the next day, with a promise that he wouldn't be harmed. The rising Unspeakable thought this would be a great teasing material in the future: Director of the Department of Mysteries, Unspeakable Croaker never thought of threatening the Goblins.

In the end, Harry and the High King had formed a friendship that lasted until Harry's rebirth. Harry had an heir test and got a lot more than he asked for. Along with his Potter Lordship, Harry discovered he had many more titles, as well as being descendent and/or magical heir of three Founders.

When the three Slytherins were informed of all his titles, they immediately started coaching Harry, and Susan to a lesser extent, on Pureblood traditions, politics and etiquette, so they could make the most use of their votes.

During this time, the five of them got even closer and one day, Susan invited the three beautiful Slytherin witches into their bed. The well-traveled Unspeakable was shocked at the beginning, to say the least, but he didn't put up much of a resistance; let's be fair, no red-blooded male would.

Things went well between the five of them for years; Harry knew that his four witches had come to love him, and told him so many times. But he couldn't say it back, not after Luna's and Padma's suicides as well as Hermione's murder; he was too afraid that when he did finally admit to them and himself that he loved them, they would be taken away from him again. Though Harry never explained this to them, all four of the intelligent witches understood; they were content knowing how much their lover cared about every single one of them, so their relationship stayed as it was.

Things went on so well for so long; by 2030, the Unspeakable and his four lovers were all-but-married, as they practically all lived together. The witches had all aged well, due to them being powerful witches in their own right, as well as being constantly bathed in the Grand Battle Mage's powerful aura; they were all in their fifties by then, but still had bodies most thirty-year-olds would kill for.

The content warrior had finally considered having children of his own, but…

Flashback Ends

The time-traveler ruthlessly buried what would have followed that memory somewhere in his Mind World really hard even for himself to get to; it wouldn't do for him to have another breakdown in front of these two witches. Their younger versions hardly knew him, and he wouldn't want to scare them away now, would he?

The much younger versions of two of his past, or was it future, lovers stood in front of him; their radiant beauty already started to show. Daphne's straight golden-blonde hair ran smoothly past her shoulders, whilst her icy-yet-still-beautiful-blue eyes gazed into his emerald-green ones; the master Occlumens would have sworn that she could look right into his soul if it wasn't for his mastery in Mind Arts. The Ice Queen's aristocratic features and already-developed curves foretold the well-endowed gorgeous woman that she would grow into.

Tracey, while not as well developed as her best friend, was just as beautiful in the ageless warrior's opinion. Her slightly-curly dark-brunette hair framed her bubbly features and her deep-sapphire-blue eyes danced mischievously.

The time-traveler reminded himself again that this was his second chance at life; all that he had lost was here, alive and well again. Harry was going to grab onto this second chance and do everything he could to pursue his Happy Ending with all seven witches he knew he loved and would love him back. He was not going to repeat any mistakes he had made in his previous life and the reborn mage was going to live without regrets this time.

Having made his mind up, and being presented with an opportunity, Harry decided to get a move on wooing these two beautiful snakes.

"Hello, Miss Davis, Miss Greengrass, I haven't had the pleasure. This beautiful girl on my shoulder is my familiar, Hedwig," said Harry with a warm smile; he gazed first into Tracy's curious sapphire-blue eyes, then Daphne's icy-blue ones with his emerald-green eyes before he affectionately tickled Hedwig under her chin.

"Harry, what are you trying to do? Get me to blush enough to initiate another burning day?"

Harry ignored Hedwig, and approached the girls slowly with the witty bird still on his shoulder, clearly showing he was unarmed. He stopped short with about a meter between him and the Slytherins; his smile turned mischievous, and Harry picked up Tracey's right hand, gently brushed her middle knuckle against his lips while maintaining eye contact the whole time, before repeating the same actions with Daphne.

Daphne Greengrass, heiress to the Greengrass family fortune, Slytherin's resident Ice Queen. Like many witches of her age, she grew up reading stories of Harry Potter, but she wasn't one of those fan girls. Daphne was smart; she was groomed to take over the family businesses one day, so she knew those stories were just that, stories. That didn't stop her hoping to meet Harry Potter and get to know the real him though.

Being sorted into Slytherin with Harry Potter sorted into Gryffindor destroyed that hope, even if they shared most of their classes, obviously by the old coot's design. Daphne knew she was pretty, and she was proud of that fact, but she also knew she attracted enough attention she didn't need nor want as it was, without befriending the Gryffindor Golden Boy. So Daphne kept to herself, never dropping her Ice Queen persona, and protected herself along with her best friend Tracey from any unwanted attention in the snake pit.

Being the true Slytherin she was, Daphne kept her eye on Potter during her first year and had many questions formed in her head. He was nothing like she expected: Potter was clearly underweight, wearing rags that were clearly unbecoming of someone his station; she knew perfectly well that the Potters were one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Wizarding Britain. Her instincts told her there was something not right with Potter, but there was nothing she could do. So Daphne observed while being unobserved.

It seemed Hogwarts was a lot more exciting than she ever expected, but every exciting event seemed to somehow revolve around the Gryffindor Golden Boy, the redheaded garbage bin, and the smart muggleborn girl.

In the past two years, despite knowing there was more to the real story in all those rumors she heard about, Daphne found Potter did seem to act like a typical foolhardy Gryffindor: rushing into situations unprepared, reacting without thinking, basically completely opposite of how a true Slytherin would act. That was until the previous day during Potions class.

Like always, Daphne acted more Slytherin than anyone else in her house. When the fight broke out, she just sat there and observed, evaluating how it would affect her, and if there was anything she could use to her advantage. It was then she saw it: not only Potter did not jump in to help the redheaded garbage bin, Potter had a smirk on his face as he sat there calmly in the middle of a chaotic classroom. That had piqued the Ice Queen's curiosity.

What followed next only intrigued her further. Having been taught Occlumency by her father, she knew the Headmaster and her Head of House scanned students' thoughts frequently; she had felt mental probes brushing against her shield before immediately withdrawing. When Snape started to blame Potter for the fight, unsurprisingly, Daphne was again surprised by Potter's seemingly innocent response, and the cunning blonde knew then Potter was baiting Snape. Clearly Snape took the bait, as in mere seconds, the Potions Master was on the floor and had wet himself.

Daphne wasn't sure what Potter did, except that he did something. The only explanation the Greengrass heiress could come up with was, Potter had somehow developed Occlumency defenses she could only accomplish in at least another decade. But how was that possible?

She had been thinking about what Potter did until dinner that day when another fight broke out between the redheaded garbage bin and the blonde ponce. The observant girl immediately shifted her attention to Potter, who by chance, met her gaze.

Then, Potter did the unthinkable; he smirked and winked at her. The Heiress Presumptive of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Greengrass could not believe the audacity of the boy; she was the resident Ice Queen who hexed anyone who so much as looked at her wrong, and Potter had dared to wink at her. When she finally finished silently fuming behind her Occlumency shields, she realized Potter was already gone, and the cunning heiress began to analyze everything.

Potter had somehow started both fights, and for some reason, the Gryffindor Golden Boy, had let her, a Slytherin, know what he had done. Potter didn't jump to help the redheaded garbage bin; something must have changed. Out of the Golden Trio, Granger was petrified just two days before, the garbage bin didn't seem to change that much; so in conclusion, whatever had changed, it centered on the Potter heir.

The blonde heiress couldn't get Harry Potter out of her mind; for the first time, the Ice Queen was intrigued by a boy. She didn't sleep well that night.

Daphne spent the next morning discreetly observing Potter. She was first very surprised that the Gryffindor Golden Boy was sitting at the Ravenclaw Table, but the budding relationship between the Potter heir and the strange blonde Ravenclaw intrigued her even more.

The observant girl was also one of the few students who noticed the lack of staff at the High Table. When Professor McGonagall made her announcement, the blonde Slytherin wondered about the reasons behind the canceling of their classes. She then noted Potter's lack of reaction to both the accusing glares and the announcement. This led to Daphne suspecting Potter's involvement in whatever was keeping the staff busy.

The cunning blonde proceeded to try to discreetly listen in to Potter's conversation with the young Ravenclaw. She found that not only could she not hear a word they were saying, but only her strong will with the help of her Occlumency training allowed her to consciously realize that she couldn't eavesdrop on their conversation.

By that point, the slightly frustrated Slytherin didn't know what to think; she had already made too many educated guesses about the events surrounding the Potter heir to make any more assumptions. Daphne was deciding whether to be more proactive for her information gathering, when she realised that her decision was just taken away from her for the time being: Potter had just left the Great Hall with the Ravenclaw girl, leaving a rather agitated Ice Queen behind, who knew she wouldn't be able to follow Potter without making a scene. She silently promised herself that she would be ready when the next opportunity presented itself.

The cunning heiress arrived early for lunch later that day so she could observe her developing obsession, not that she would ever admit to herself that she had an obsession.

She saw the young Potter heir arriving for lunch, with the same young blonde Ravenclaw again, whom, with Tracey's help, Daphne had found out was Luna Lovegood of the Most Ancient House of Lovegood; she was frequently bullied by her own house-mates. The blonde Slytherin snorted inwardly at that, I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be smart! The Greengrass heiress knew and understood that in the magical world, especially in Wizarding Britain, friendships and alliances were built during Hogwarts years, and so were animosities; it was stupid to antagonise one of the Most Ancient Houses like that. The Lovegoods might not have any votes in the Wizengamot, but they were still a very old Pureblood house; there was a reason that no one went after the Quibbler despite the amount of the Ministry's dirty laundry it was subtly airing. As for the Lovegood heiress, Daphne would reserve her own judgement until she knew more about the young Ravenclaw.

Back to the subject of her intere-, err, investigation, Daphne had noted many subtle changes about the Potter heir in the past two days. He might look the same, and was still wearing the same rags he always wore; to the observant Slytherin, he might as well be a completely different person.

The most obvious change was his posture: his shoulders were no longer slouched, his back straight, he looked self-assured, and for some reason, the way he walked reminded Daphne of a predator stalking its prey. Another notable change was his eyes: the emotional turmoil that was ever-present in his eyes since he was first accused as the attacker was gone; in its place, those eyes showed intelligence, mischievousness, and confidence.

Over lunch, the blonde Slytherin noticed that whatever was going on between Potter and Lovegood was developing rapidly; despite not being able to hear anything they said, she could see through Potter's actions that he was very protective of the younger blonde. The observant Slytherin filed that information away as she saw the Potter heir was about getting ready to leave; Daphne discreetly signaled her best friend to get ready to leave the Great Hall unobserved.

Tracey Davis, Heiress Presumptive of the Noble and Ancient House of Davis, might not have acted like other Slytherins, including her best friend Daphne, for she was friendly and bubbly towards almost everyone and had some seemingly impulsive tendencies like Gryffindors did. However, in reality, she was every bit as cunning as the resident Ice Queen and even more slippery; she had to be to survive in the Slytherin Dungeon as a half-blood.

Tracey was the gossip who didn't gossip. Unlike the Ice Queen who preferred to sit back and observe to gather information, the friendlier Slytherin preferred a more 'hands-on' approach. She would initiate conversations among her peers by talking but without really saying anything. This worked well for her as her friendly and bubbly demeanor would put others at ease and cause them to let their guard down, which also gave her an edge during a fight: her care-free attitude could change instantly without any warning and before you knew it, her curses were already heading in your direction.

These differences were a significant part of why the two best friends complemented each other so well in the snake pit. Daphne's cold icy-blue eyes would warn off any boys with some sense of self-preservation; those without would be put at ease then cut down by a seemingly harmless Tracey. For information gathering, while the cheerful brunette was better at extracting useful information from smaller groups, the blonde Ice Queen could sit back and observe to watch out for the bigger picture.

Daphne's observation skills allowed her to identify a shift in political power as well as the focal point of said shift within the school; she would then inform Tracey so the latter could gather more information using her friendlier approach. Hence, the Greengrass heiress had become the unofficial leader and spokesperson between the two cunning snakes, despite the Davis heiress being the more talkative one.

When her best friend had approached her earlier in the day about the things she'd noticed about Potter, Tracey immediately agreed to follow her plans of following the Potter heir after lunch. So after seeing her blonde friend's signal, the two best friends left the Great Hall discreetly without any trouble.

As discreetly as they could, the Slytherin duo followed the Potter heir, who looked like he was having a mental conversation with his owl. The two glanced at each other for a moment from this new development.

They, of course, had seen Potter's owl around; while they both thought the owl was exceptionally beautiful, neither of the Slytherins thought it was Potter's familiar. Very rarely did witches or wizards find their familiars at such a young age, as only someone with a matured or a very powerful non-matured magical core could attract their potential familiars to them. However, a familiar bond was the only explanation they could come up with for Potter's ability to mentally communicate with the owl, and both realized the implications this explanation would have regarding the Potter heir's magical power.

By then, Tracey had also noticed the subtle changes her best friend had pointed out earlier about the famous boy; she began to appreciate why Daphne had become so interested in the Potter heir. Oh, the Ice Queen might be able to fool everyone else, and sometimes even herself, but the astute brunette could always see through her best friend of more than ten years. She might have said that her interest in Potter was purely about information gathering, but Tracey could tell whatever changes the Potter heir was going through, they were waking up the girl in her best friend.

Tracey's inner musing was disrupted by Potter's clearly teasing voice. "Besides, you never know, they might appreciate it."

Seeing there was no one around to witness their association with the Gryffindor Golden Boy, Tracey realized this was the perfect opportunity for her and her best friend to strike up a conversation and gather some information about the Potter heir.

Daphne saw what her best friend was about to do, and despite the misgivings, she had about her best friend's approach, she knew how effective said approach was; that was not to mention her own increasing curiosity about the Potter heir, thus she didn't do anything to stop Tracey.

"Who might appreciate what, Potter?" asked the brunette Slytherin loud enough so the Gryffindor would be able to hear her calling his name from the other side of the corridor.

What followed Tracey's question shocked both of the heiresses.

Whilst Daphne didn't see the moment of emotional turmoil flashing across the time-traveling warrior's eyes, the observant snake could tell Potter wasn't surprised at being followed; she scoffed inwardly at that revelation.

They were both a little surprised when the Gryffindor called out both of them by their name, but more so when he did so with warmth and not a hint of hostility. Both of the astute Slytherins were surprised further before they could dwell on the Gryffindor's friendliness; whatever they were expecting of the Potter heir, the way he greeted them wasn't part of it. Potter had greeted them with almost perfect Pureblood etiquette, which Daphne had thought he knew nothing about; the only imperfection was the flirty tone on top of that otherwise perfect performance.

Said imperfection was soon forgotten when the bow and the constant eye contact allowed both of the Slytherin beauties to see his entrancing emerald-green eyes over the top of the wizard's glasses, for the first time without any barriers. Both Slytherins saw what the observant blonde didn't see before from afar: immense, radiating, and yet controlled power.

Any other boy who dared to touch their hands, let alone kissing said hands, would have been sent to the Hospital Wing immediately after; but time-travelling warrior had shocked both of the usually-ruthless heiresses enough, and with those enchanting green eyes staring at them, they both remained silent; the Ice Queen didn't even complain when Potter had yet to let her hand go.

Harry was quite amused by the speechlessness of the two Slytherins but didn't let it show. They clearly didn't expect him to greet them like this; oh the irony, when it was their future selves who taught him everything he knew about Pureblood etiquette.

The young man kept Daphne's still outstretched hand in his, enjoying the feel of her smooth skin again after so long. Harry continued, seeing they were still speechless.

"It's a shame something as trivial as house rivalries have denied us the opportunity to be introduced before."

Having finally recovered from Potter's surprisingly warm, polite and slightly flirtatious greetings, the Ice Queen decided to stop making a fool of herself, and answered, but made no attempt to extract her hand from the young heir's grip.

"I agree, Potter. By limiting our social circles within our own houses, we isolate ourselves from three-quarters of the school; at least from a business point of view, we would have disadvantaged ourselves significantly." The blonde beauty then turned her attention to Hedwig, before speaking to Harry again, "She is indeed a beautiful owl."

"I see how it is, you two are double-teaming me, see who can make me blush the most," complained Hedwig in his head.

Harry chuckled, at Daphne's questioning look, he quickly explained, "Hedwig said thank you, but was complaining about us two making her blush."

Daphne was quite amused by Potter's dynamic with his owl, and nodded in understanding, but didn't say anything; she mentally made a note confirming the full familiar bond between the Potter heir and his owl. Tracey had no such compulsion to remain silent, having recently recovered herself from the numerous shocks delivered by the Potter heir. "Aww, you two are so cute!" She then proceeded to imitate Harry's earlier action and tickled the beautiful bird under her chin.

The time-traveling mage could feel Hedwig's conflict between enjoying the brunette's attention and being indignant at being triple-teamed.

Harry decided to not dignify the 'cute' comment with an answer and continued with where Daphne left off, "You are of course correct. Which is why I had promised myself just recently to expand my social circles, and try to get to know people from the other houses."

The thoughtful blonde arched one of her elegant eyebrows, and asked, "Including Slytherins?"

The experienced warrior answered with an easy smile, "Definitely, how else would I get to know two interesting and also two of the most beautiful witches in Hogwarts standing before me?"

"Oh, smooth, Potter," jumped in Tracey, "I didn't know you had such a tongue on you. But are you sure you can handle the two of us?"

Harry didn't take his eyes off Daphne during her best friend's question to show his sincerity. Daphne studied his intense green eyes; there was no lust or leer, just sincerity, clearly indicating he meant what he said and wanted to get to know them as Daphne and Tracey. When she realized this, the Ice Queen blushed.

Harry smiled in triumph inwardly at making her blush, happy that he didn't mess up and was allowed in the Ice Queen's first layer of defense; the experienced mage decided to move on quickly before it became awkward and undo the progress he had made. He winked at the still blushing blonde before turning towards the brunette to counter her slightly flirtatious comment, "Well, Miss Davis, if you spend enough time with me, you might find out," finished the Potter heir with a rakish grin worthy of James Potter that left Tracey in the same state as her best friend.

Both of the Slytherins recovered quickly though due to their somewhat-adequate Occlumency the time-traveler was well aware of. He continued where their main topic of conversation had left off, "Contrary to general opinion, I do not hate Slytherins, I do not think all Slytherins are evil, and I know for a fact Salazar Slytherin himself did not hate muggleborns, or new-bloods as they were called in his time. I just dislike Malfoy, his cronies, and his godfather, who happens to be Slytherin's Head of House for the time being."

That little snippet of information about Salazar Slytherin clearly intrigued the Slytherin beauties, and the astute battle mage recognized it; he decided to add another piece of information he knew they, especially Daphne, would find interesting. Being their lover for nearly two decades in the future, the time-traveler knew what made the two Slytherins tick. "In fact, if I hadn't met Malfoy, I would have been sorted to the Noble House of Slytherin."

Both Slytherins were intrigued by Potter's comment about Salazar Slytherin, and they could tell he wasn't making it up, but how could he know about those facts that were clearly lost in history? Before they could dwell on that further, Potter's next comment about his sorting definitely gave both of the astute Slytherins something else to think about. That was a very valuable piece of information and should be used carefully; neither the dark nor the neutral families would be happy with the Malfoys if this information got out. Because of the ponce's blunder, the neutral families missed a prime opportunity to be associated with a family as old and as powerful as the Potters, and the dark families missed a favor they could gain from the Dark Lord by delivering the Boy-Who-Lived using their heirs.

Harry could literally see the wheels spinning in their cunning minds, deciding on how to use this information in the future; he really did know and love them. Death was right; the reborn warrior vowed to himself again to accept all they would be willing to offer and keep them safe this time around.

Daphne snapped out of her planning first, and refocused on his eyes; she saw amusement in them. She realised then that he knew she would make use of that information, and he was happy to let her. The astute blonde had an inkling that Potter might be a lot more Slytherin than anyone realised; a true Slytherin hiding among the lions. Daphne narrowed her eyes at Potter, who just smirked back, Merlin, he can be infuriating. "Why?"

The intelligent warrior knew perfectly well what she was asking, but couldn't help teasing her. He adopted an innocent expression. "Why what?"

"You know exactly why what," said the slightly frustrated blonde, almost with a growl. Tracey had also snapped out of her planning by Daphne's one-word question; she was very amused by what the Potter heir was doing to her usually-stoic best friend, so for once, the bubbly brunette kept her mouth shut, sat back and observed.

"Do I?" Harry grinned widely, and Daphne huffed. He knew that she knew that he was teasing, and he wasn't afraid to show it. The ruthless resident Ice Queen wanted to hex him, and that was when she realised that her hand was still in his; it was also when she realised how natural and nice she felt having her hand in his. Not willing to carry on that train of thought, Daphne immediately withdrew her hand and blushed, which wasn't helped by Potter's disappointed pout and her best friend, traitor, snickering at her.

Again, before it got awkward, the intelligent young wizard answered her question, "I know that little piece of information would be useful in the snake pit, and could be used to protect you from Malfoy's ilk in the next few years." Harry then paused to wait for her to look him in the eyes, so she could see his sincerity. "I really do want to get to know you, Daphne, if you let me. And if you do, you might decide you need to hide our developing relationship to protect yourself, and I will understand. But I also know, no matter how careful we are, we might slip up one day, and that information could help give you an edge protecting yourself."

The majority-owner of Hogwarts knew that no one could harm either of the girls while they were within Hogwarts' ward boundary. However, it wasn't the right place or the right time to release that piece of information, not to mention that the time-traveler knew how independent both of the girls were; they wouldn't want to feel like damsels that needed to be protected by their prince.

He turned to the bubbly brunette, who had stepped back to the background for a moment, and extended the same offer to Tracey with the same, intense and sincere tone.

Neither heiress was easily impressed, but they were by Potter's reasoning; he was clearly a lot more aware of everything happening in the castle than he let on. They could also tell he was sincere and really wanted to know them and keep them safe; neither were naïve enough to think that their beauty didn't have anything to do with the Potter heir's attention, but they were happy to see that their looks were not the only thing the young man in front of them was interested in. If anything, it would help both of their families in the future.

Daphne spoke up in her de facto role as the spokesperson of the two, "Thank you for your concern about our safety, Po… Harry. You are not what I expected, in a good way. I think I can speak for Tracey that we would like to get to know you, too. I must say I am intrigued by your actions since yesterday; I won't pry, but I can tell you are getting rid of the redheaded garbage bin. To be honest, I don't understand why you are friends with him in the first place."

Harry gave her a genuine smile and reassured her, "I know you don't want to get used to calling me by my first name; you are more likely to slip up that way, so I won't mind you calling me Potter for now." The two Slytherins nodded in acceptance, again surprised by how insightful Potter was. "As for the weasel, he should consider himself lucky that he is still breathing given what I have discovered," growled out the battle mage as his eyes hardened for a moment before his calm composure returned. "I'm sorry that I can't let you know what I've discovered until both of your Occlumency shields are more advanced."

The astute blonde instantly cut in, "That was it, that was what you did to Snape, wasn't it?" Harry's smirk was all they needed to know. Whilst Tracey was awed by the Potter heir's prowess at Mind Arts, the Ice Queen thought if that was his standard, her Occlumency would have a long way to go; she said somewhat dejectedly, "If you could do that to Snape with your Occlumency, and using that as standard, it would take me a long time to be as good as you are now."

Harry moved a little closer to the dejected girl and waited for her to look him in the eyes. She did knowing that he most likely knew Legilimency, given what she knew now, but already developing enough trust for him to not use it on her. "If you let me, I would be happy to show the both of you how I developed my mindscape; although it would still probably take a few years to get to my current proficiency, we are not using me as a standard. Your standard is to be able to defend against a full mental assault by Dumbledore or Snape, and I am confident you would get there by the end of this summer if you are willing to learn."

"Really?" asked both of the enthusiastic Slytherins simultaneously.

Harry nodded affirmatively, "Really. I'm planning to invite a number of other like-minded people from different houses for this, including the lovely Miss Lovegood, whom I am sure that you have noticed I had breakfast and lunch with," said Harry while gazing directly into the blonde's icy-blue eyes.

Daphne's eyes widened with a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look, as her best friend snickered again at the Ice Queen getting caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

The Marauders' heir winked at the snickering brunette while the Ice Queen was employing every bit of her Occlumency training to not pout; he continued, "However, I am afraid that the two of you are the only ones currently in Slytherin I can trust to not stab me in the back, given the current climate in the once-Noble House of Slytherin, so please keep this between yourselves."

For the first time in a long time, Daphne consciously let her Ice Queen persona slip in front of a boy and smiled brightly. Sure, she was somewhat peeved about being embarrassed by said boy earlier, but the cunning Slytherin was even more impressed. However, the fact that he could look past her outward beauty and her Ice Queen persona, and was willing to trust her as well as to help her allowed the Ice Queen to finally drop her guard.

"I understand, Harry," said the beautiful blonde softly, "I thank you for your offer, and gladly accept it." She paused to consider her next words, "I can tell that you are up to something, but I can also tell that you hold no ill-intent towards Tracey and me. Despite how Slytherin I now know you can be, you still have that Gryffindor nobility within you. I must say, it's a good mix. I think I speak for Tracey that we will be looking forward to learning from you."

Tracey nodded enthusiastically next to Daphne in agreement; the brunette let her best friend take the lead, but seeing she had finished, the bubbly girl jumped in, "Before we say our goodbyes, you haven't answered my very first question yet. Who might appreciate what?"

Remembering how their conversation started, instead of the vague images of all his past lovers, the time-traveling mage replayed the memories of doing that particular activity with older versions of Daphne and Tracey, and blushed for a second before he quickly got it under control.

"Harry! Mind, Gutter."

"Shush, Hedwig. I couldn't help it, and I should be free to think whatever I want behind my impenetrable mental shields. You could choose not to see what I am thinking."

Harry's eyes turned mischievous as the Marauder in him decided to make an impressionable exit for the ladies; he smirked before answering the brunette, "I can't tell you the 'who', but as for the 'what'," the wizard lowered his voice, paused, stepped towards them and leaned forward as if to tell a guarded secret; this served to draw the two Slytherin beauties closer as well.

Both Tracey and Daphne saw the instant of blush, the mischievous look, as well as Hedwig's indignant look towards her master; both had a feeling that they were better off not knowing the answer, but leaned forward anyway to hear what the Potter heir had to say.

The three heads were as close as they could be without Hedwig getting in the way; Daphne and Tracey could feel his hot breath brushing against their right and left ear respectively, making both of them shiver in pleasure, that they nearly didn't hear what the mischievous boy had whispered. "Would you appreciate having a Parselmouth performing cunnilingus on you? See you around, ladies." Finished the Marauders' heir with a bit of seduction in his voice.

He stepped back as he removed both Hedwig's and his glamours, letting the beautiful and shocked Slytherins have a good look at his muscular form dressed in a form-fitting dueling robe and his beautiful familiar, while said familiar swatted him on the back of his head. Two seconds later, the white phoenix flamed her naughty human away.

When the slightly flushed girls finally got themselves under control from Harry's seductive voice to register what said seductive voice said to them, they were somewhat confused at first. However, that confusion gave away to shock and awe from the sudden appearance of a handsome, emerald-green-eyed and clearly powerful young man, as well as a majestic white phoenix that clearly belonged to the same powerful young man.

When the shock wore off, the handsome young man had already vanished in the midst of a bright-white flame. It only took another few seconds before the adolescent Slytherins fully comprehended what the Potter heir had whispered in their ears. Their eyes immediately glazed over, faces flushed and panties soaked, as they both started to imagine the handsome man who had just disappeared performing the unspeakable act he'd mentioned to them.

When they recovered enough of their senses, Harry was nowhere to be seen and both highly-aroused girls wondered if they imagined the more handsome version of the Potter heir. Daphne cursed Potter's name as she quickly found a bathroom to get her blush under control; it would not do to let the rest of the school see the Ice Queen blushing like this.

It took half an hour for the seething Ice Queen to get her blush under control. Tracey had followed her best friend to the bathroom, and during that time, she alternated between sniggering at the angry blonde and dreaming about the emerald-green-eyed hunk that was Harry Potter.

Eventually, they both headed back towards the Slytherin dorm room they shared with each other to change their soaked knickers.

Despite still cursing Potter's name under her breath, Daphne couldn't get the image of him using Parseltongue on her out of her mind, and she knew she was going to need some self-relief that night. As for Potter, he would pay for what he did; Daphne had a vicious smile as she began to plan her retaliation against Potter.

As she replayed their conversation with the infuriating boy, Daphne couldn't help notice that he seemed to know a lot about her, including which buttons to push to rile her up. Although he seemed to use that knowledge to decide where the conversation led, and tease her sometimes, Harry was honest about it, and also used what he knew to help her instead of manipulating her.

She was Slytherin enough to still be cautious and not make the final judgment based on one meeting, but the astute blonde had a feeling that she had met her match, and this newly developed friendship would progress to something more. Just as well, she might not have made her final judgment, but the intelligent young Slytherin knew Harry James Potter was not someone she wanted as an enemy. Which also meant her retaliation would be more about embarrassment rather than hurtful, and definitely a lot more subtle. The Slytherin's resident Ice Queen could do subtle, and she definitely enjoyed a challenge.

Tracey could literally see the wheels spinning in her best friend's mind; she smirked at the blonde as, despite the outward rage, she knew Daphne was smitten with the emerald-green-eyed wizard, even if she most likely wouldn't admit it to herself. Who could blame her; the brunette knew perfectly well and could admit to herself that she was smitten with the same wizard as well. The hunk of a wizard known as Harry James Potter was handsome, powerful, intelligent and rich as well as charming, respectful and polite; he would make a perfect boy toy even if they only dreamt up the more handsome version. Her best friend and she had shared everything since as long as they could remember; Tracy was sure that Daphne wouldn't mind sharing Potter with her either.

After that Parseltongue comment, Tracey shivered in pleasure at the mere thought. She didn't need Harry's warning about not mentioning their upcoming Occlumency lessons to other Slytherins; other than Daphne, and possibly Story, the brunette had no intention sharing the green-eyed hunk with any other pampered Pureblood princesses. With that thought, the cunning Slytherin started her planning for seducing Harry Potter for her best friend and herself.


	9. Melissa and Inheritance

As the white flame receded, Harry looked around at the Chamber of Secrets; its towering stone pillars entwined with serpents, rose to a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place. Harry called out in Parseltongue "Melissa, where are you? I've spoken with Salazar, and I'd like to make you my familiar." The pipes around him creaked and groaned as Melissa moved through them.

"You spoke to Master? Can he speak again? Has Master returned? He told you to do this, so I accept, though I don't know how the young Speaker will look with a white phoenix and a basilisk as familiars," Melissa hissed, eager to see Salazar again as he had raised her since she was an egg.

Harry felt a tendril of magic quickly reach out to him, and he responded likewise. The magic reacted, causing a small spark as another familiar bond was formed with Melissa. Harry felt a new tattoo form on his chest and neck. Looking down, the basilisk had its tail at his right shoulder, the center ran around his stomach, and its head ended with the tongue blending into a vein on his neck. He grinned as he realized what the tongue meant, that he was a Parseltongue. He quickly keyed Melissa into his Mind World, with everything that entailed. Melissa saw her reaction in the previous timeline, and Harry's reason for going into the Chamber.

"I'm sorry for hurting Master's 'Mione. I didn't know about her then. I only saw a chance for food, but she and the girl with her turned to stone before I got to her. If I had known, I would have avoided her," Melissa apologized telepathically.

"It's alright, Melissa. It wasn't your fault. I will need you to keep responding to Riddle's commands until I call for you and am in the Chamber with him. It's the only way I can help Ginny," Harry said, regretting his situation. "After that, any time I need you, I'll call and you can respond over our link. I don't want this to happen again after Tommy boy's diary is destroyed. It never needs to happen again. I'll make sure you get food, so, if we need it, you can help defend Hogwarts. Now I need to go to Gringotts and deal with matters there, before I see if my letters have gotten a reply." With that, Harry turned and walked to a perched Hedwig to get them out.

Harry and Hedwig Flamed to Gringotts, as he wanted to take care of his inheritance before the MOB could get back. Harry arrived in the atrium of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. He made his way over to a vacant counter where a Goblin was counting coins.

"State your business," the Goblin said, without looking up from the coins.

"Greetings," Harry said, Gobbledegook, "My name is Harry Potter. I'd like to speak to someone about my account."

The Goblin looked up at Harry and stared at him for a moment, then saw Hedwig resting upon his shoulder. "Right this way, sir." They followed the Goblin across the room. Then the Goblin met with another, this one looking far older than the first. The older Goblin looked at Harry and smiled softly.

"Greetings," the older Goblin said, "My name is Ragnok the Sixth. I am the Vault Keeper for the Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter."

"I am Harry Potter," Harry said, "And this is my familiar, Hedwig."

"Indeed," Ragnok replied, "I was quite surprised to see such a noble creature enter my chambers with a note written in the Goblin tongue, much less from a wand-waver. Nevertheless, I personally investigated your accounts and am very sorry to say that every year since your parents' 'death', the personal vault of one Albus Dumbledore was increased by the amount of 50,000 galleons. Also, once a month, August, every year for the past several years – Molly Prewett Weasley places a nice sum of money into her private Vault that is not connected to her family. The transactions were overseen by members of Griphook's clan, and are very legal, if those funds were going towards your care. If they weren't then these actions can be audited and the money lost gained back. Do you wish us to go through with the audits?" Ragnok finished, pushing a form over to Harry.

"I've never received any money from him," Harry said, "And if he gave it to my Muggle relatives, they never bought anything for me. They probably used it for themselves."

Ragnok sighed a guttural sound. "I will investigate this thoroughly. You have my word."

"My parents left me a Will, correct?" Harry posed, knowing the answer.

"Yes. If your parents passed away and you survived, you were meant to open the Will at eleven years old and receive everything pertaining to their instructions. I believe they also requested an Inheritance Test, as well as Emancipation." Ragnok reached behind him to pull out a grey box without any hinges, suggesting that it couldn't be opened, but it had a place to put a single finger. Place one finger on the container," he instructed, "You will feel a light pinprick. I assure you it is not dangerous. It will remove a dollop of your blood, then you will be healed straight away."

Harry shivered slightly, hesitated for a moment, then pressed a finger on one container. He winced lightly at the pinprick. The container made a metallic grinding noise as it rolled backward toward Ragnok. The container ejected a scroll of parchment, which rolled flat onto the table Ragnok cleared his throat and stated:

"I, Ragnok The Sixth, the Vault Keeper of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter. am witness to the Reading of the Last Will and Testament of James Charlus Potter and Lily Marie Potter nee Evans which they collaborated on together. Lord Potter, as the last heir of the Ancient Line, so proven by your blood, make your choice. Do you wish the Reading to be by voice or by your own eyes?"

 _Flashback_

Harry raised his eyebrows at Ragnok's mention of "Lord Potter", but ignored it for now.

"I will read it myself," Harry said.

Ragnok relaxed in his chair and motioned for Harry to read the Will. Harry leaned forward and began to read to himself.

 **We, James Charlus Potter, and Lily Marie Potter nee Evans of able bodies and minds claim this, our Final Will and Testament.**

 **If James is no longer of this Earth, and Lily survives him, he leaves the contents of this Will to her until their son, Harry James Potter, reaches his age of majority.**

 **If Lily Marie Potter is no longer of this Earth, at the time of this Reading, we leave these various items to the following:**

Harry recognized several familiar names listed there. He was quite surprised to see that a few of his old classmates and friends had even been listed – it appeared that his parents were friends with the parents of some of them. Several thousands of Galleons were given as gifts, as well as a few other items.

Harry's eyes widened as he saw his own name listed. There was a number which indicated an obscene amount of Galleons which was apparently now his, as well as the various specific items, most of which were in the Potter Family Vault, was named. Below this, there were more interesting pieces of information. The first explained why Ragnok had called him by his title.

When Harry reaches the age of eleven, we officially name him Lord Potter, the Head of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter. We also request an official Inheritance Test for Harry so he may discover any and all titles to his name. At this time, if we are no longer of this Earth, I officially ask that my son becomes Emancipated with everything this entails.

Harry fumed – here was the permission that Ragnok was talking about, that got ignored. Below this, there were several names listed again.

 **If we are no longer of this Earth, we name these individuals below Harry's Official and Magical Guardians.**

 **(In order of preference – if an individual is no longer of this Earth, the next name in line becomes Guardian)**

 **Sirius Black – Godfather, by right of 'The Godfather Ritual'. Family friend and ally.**

 **Alice Longbottom, and her husband, Frank – Godmother, by right of 'The Godmother Ritual'. Family friends and allies.**

 **Amelia Susan Bones – family friend and ally.**

 **Pandora Lovegood and her husband, Xenophilius – family friends**

 **Andromeda and Ted Tonks – family friends.**

 **Castor and Illiana Greengrass**

 **By no means, should Harry Potter be raised by Petunia Dursley nee Evans and her husband Vernon.**

At this, Harry broke down sobbing. His lovers all could have been his sisters, their loss fresh on his mind. His little moon could've been saved. He didn't care about what he went through with the Dursleys, he mourned the loss of a family he could've had.

 _Flashback Ends_

Harry read the will he knew so well again, knowing now that he had a new opportunity with every one of his girls. It also held a note of his two familiars, and his status with the Houses of Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw. He got the first test done before he taught at Hogwarts, so he didn't know what would happen.

Ragnok spoke up, "It seems everything is in order. The Houses and Clan you can take over now are under your control. All vaults related to them and any other valuables they may have are yours as well. Are there any other matters you'd like to attend to?"

"No High King, there's nothing else I'd like to discuss today. May your vaults be ever full," Harry politely responded.

"And may your enemies fall at your feet, Lord Potter," Ragnok finished, visibly relaxing, happy that the meeting had gone well.

 ** _AN_**

 ** _I finally got around to spreading the story out properly. Next chapter will see Harry and Susan reconnect, and Amelia's response. We also get a look at Croaker's office while we wait for Amelia and Harry to chat._**


End file.
